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Auditor General Tsakani Maluleke.
- AGSA is in talks with the Treasury to recover the 150 million rand it spent on real-time audits of the government’s Covid-19 aid package.
- This will address the deficit of 57 million rand in its budget for 2020/2021.
- The real-time audits were not budgeted.
The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) is committing to the National Treasury to recover the 150 million rand it spent on the real-time audit of the Covid-19 acquisitions.
Last year, when the government announced its R500 billion Covid-19 aid package, President Cyril Ramaphosa asked AGSA to conduct real-time audits on these measures.
Presenting to the Standing Committee of the Auditor General AGSA’s strategic plan for 2021-2024, Auditor General Tsakani Maluleke said that AGSA will have a budget deficit of R57 million for the financial year 2021/2022, which means that they will have to draw on his Bookings.
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“This will have a negative impact on our cash hedging going forward,” the Maluleke presentation reads.
After DA deputy Haniff Hoosen raised concerns about the projected shortfall, Maluleke said this “will decrease” once AGSA receives payment for the R150 million it spent on real-time audits.
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“We still have to recover the benefit of that money,” he said, adding that AGSA continues to engage with the Treasury on the matter. He said that if the matter is not resolved in two to three weeks, he will go to the committee for help.
He said that they tried to recoup as much of the expenses as possible from the auditees, but this was not always possible. In addition, that work was not budgeted because it was necessary due to the pandemic.
Two weeks ago, Maluleke presented the findings of these real-time audits to the committee.
AGSA found that some of the projects were abandoned or redirected, while others did not achieve the required objectives.
In addition, AGSA discovered inequity in the adjudication of government businesses and found insufficient steps to prevent overpricing, financial losses, fraud and abuse of the system.
