Impact of internal audit management on public sector administration in the North West Province

Abstract

The first democratic elections in 1994 did not only symbolise change in the presidency and ruling party, but a new approach in the governance of the public sector, policies and guidelines. Due to government development, a Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) was formulated and promulgated during 1999, although influenced by the publication of King Report (I). Issues pertaining to how the public sector should be governed were legislated in South Africa. Introducing PFMA as well as the Treasury Regulation had considerable impact in Internal Auditing in the South African public due to legislative requirements. Section 38 of the PFMA states that an Accounting Officer of the department must ensure that a system of internal audit exists within his/her department. The mandate- of the Internal Audit is to provide support to Provincial Departments by assessing the adequacy of controls in place to mitigate potential threats which might occur and prevent the government from obtaining the set objectives. The Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, in its budget statement of the 2009/201 0 financial period made a call for all provincial and local government departments to achieve clean audit reports by 2014. Government has always positioned service delivery high on its agenda since 1994. However, the Auditor General reports have highlighted issues such as lack of productivity, lack of adequate structures, insufficient skills and inadequate internal controls as some of the challenges negatively affecting the attainment of Government objectives. "The departments also lack systems to manage audit queries and recommendations, in both internal and external auditing and have inadequate systems with regard to corporate governance", the Minister said. He further went on to say that effective and efficient delivery of services cannot be separated from the Government's ability to achieve unqualified audit reports. The study consisted of 1 00 participants. From the participants 50 were from the Provincial Internal Audit staff out of a group of 112. The other 50 participants were from the employees in the Internal Control and Risk Management directorates as well as individuals who are in the Management level within government departments and have been audited by the PIA before.