South Africa’s Finance and Fiscal Commission (FFC) has criticised the National Department of Health for not doing more to ensure provincial health departments improve their audit outcomes, reports Business Day.
The FFC’s provincial budget analysis manager Ghalieb Dawood told Parliament that while provincial audit outcomes have improved since 2012-13, the pace of improvement has been slow, particularly over the past three years.
The Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Free State have been persistently poor performers, and all received qualified audits in 2016-17. Only the National Health Department and that of the Western Cape received unqualified audits in 2016-17.
“Even though the national health department has set a goal in its annual performance plan of five provincial departments achieving improved audit outcomes with no emphasis of matter, there is no indicator that explains how the department aims to assist provinces to achieve this target,” Dawood said. …..more