The Ad Hoc Committee on the Auditor-General’s Annual Report met Wednesday, 02 November 2005 to plan the public hearing on the report. The questions on the Annual Report, listed hereunder, may be replied to at the hearing.
Public Audit Act No. 25 of 2004
- Please supply the Committee with a schedule of compliance with the provisions of the Public Audit Act. Please list what has been accomplished, what is outstanding and the envisaged implementation dates for the outstanding issues with specific reference to Notice 503, on page 53.
On page 8 of the Annual Report mention is made of the PAC’s responsibility for furthering the issues contained in the reports and problems that may diminish the number of reports scrutinized in 2005 and 2006.
- Please supply a breakdown of the 2003/04 Annual Reports that were left unconsidered by the National Assembly SCOPA and the Provincial Public Accounts Committees.
Code of Ethics
- The Committee requests a Copy of the Code of Ethics for the Office of the Auditor-General.
Black Economic Empowerment
- Page16 para 3 refers to audit firms that provide the audit capacity to the Office of the Auditor-General. Please supply the Committee with detailed statistics on contracts awarded to BEE firms.
- Under what circumstances and under what criteria would the Auditor-General not want to contract the work out?
Timeliness
Local Government Audits, page 21
- What level of compliance are the municipalities at?
- What is the reason that municipalities are not timely in supplying the required information?
National and Provincial Audits, page 21
- There appears to be an apparent contradiction in the paragraph, please explain the difference between 100% of National and 97% of Provincial reports completed within the two months deadline and the 87% of National and 88% of Provincial that did not present early enough for audit completion.
- Out of the 13% at National and the 12% at Provincial, which departments identified did not submit in time?
Special investigations, page 24
- Please provide a list of entities that had special investigations done, what did they deal with and why were not all of the special investigations tabled?
People, page 29
- Please provide more detail on the leadership effectiveness study and provide benchmarks associated with the study.
Measures and target, page 29
- Please explain how the target of 50% was arrived at?
Employee Wellness Programme, page 31
- Please provide details of the AIDS programme in the office.
Measures and target, page 32
- There is not a significant improvement in the pass rates, please provide an explanation for this?
Professional assistance, page 32
- How has the investment of the R21 million study assistance improved the results in pass rate reported on p32?
Minimum qualifications framework (MQF)
- Please supply the Committee with the definitions of the MQF.
- Is the strategy effective?
- Please provide details of strategies and plans to retain staff.
- How accessible is the Office of the Auditor-General to recruitment of trainee accountants?
- What criterion is used when recruiting trainee accountants?
Recognition of professional institutes, page 36
- What relationship does the Auditor-General have with other accreditation bodies?
Employment Equity, page 38
- Why has equalisation of opportunities on page 39 deteriorated?
The overall achievement and maintenance of affirmative action targets of 55/45% per band on p38 indicates a 55% achievement compared to a 70% achievement reported on page 26.
- Please explain the difference.
Employment Equity Meetings, page 40
- The EE forum dealt with four matters referred to on page 40. Please provide the Committee with details of the decision that came out of this meeting.
Products, page 43
The measures and target indicate a 65% level of acceptance by stakeholders with only 35% acceptance by auditees reported.
- Please explain why auditees are unhappy with the product provided by the Auditor-General?
- Why has satisfaction levels dropped across the board as indicated by the graph on page 45?
Satisfaction levels for the Public Accounts Committees has risen as reported on page 43 and 46.
- What accounts for the discrepancy between the PAC’s and auditees’ satisfaction levels?
It was intimated that it might be a matter of communication between parties. Parties may not understand the brief; or the manner in which receipts are requested may play a role in auditee satisfaction.
- What role do the contract auditors play in auditee satisfaction?
Quality of product, page 47
- Why is quality assurance deteriorating?
- What accounts for it and what plans are in place to counter it?
- Please provide details of the quality assurance process.
- Please provide details on how the information is collated, on a Provincial or on a National basis?
- Please provide the Committee with the results of the international peer review process conducted on the United States of America and Canada.
Risk Management, page 51
- Please provide the Committee with an update on the Corporate services restructuring.
The financials indicate that savings made on other activities financed Corporate Services restructuring.
- Is there a budget allocation for the restructuring of Corporate Services in the next budget?
General reserve and retained income, page 61 and page71
- Has approval from Minister of Finance for retention of the reserve been granted in terms of section 38 (4) of the Public Audit Act?
Environment Audits
- Specialised personnel are required to conduct environment audits, please provide the Committee with an assessment of the Offices needs with regard to this.
Auditing Professions Bill
- To what extent is Auditor-General involved in the legal process of the Auditing Professions Bill?
- How will the Auditing Professions Bill impact on the Auditor-General?
As indicated above the questions may be replied to at the hearing as part of the Auditor-General’s presentation.
We trust the above is in order but please feel free to contact the Chairperson, Ms B Hogan, at 082 496 2422 for any further clarity or myself at the numbers listed below.