Session 4: Good Governance: How SAIs influence Good Governance in Public Administration Zahira Ravat 27 & 28 May 2014

The Auditor-General of South Africa has a constitutional mandate and, as the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of South Africa, exists to strengthen our country’s democracy by enabling oversight, accountability and governance in the public sector through auditing, thereby building public confidence.

First level assurance Management/ Leadership Second level of Assurance Internal Independent Assurance and oversight Third Level of Assurance External Independent Assurance and oversight Senior ManagementInternal auditOversight (Portfolio Committee and council) Accounting Officer/ Authority Audit committeePublic accounts committee Executive AuthorityCoordinating/ Monitoring institutions External audit

Senior Management  Ensure proper record keeping so that complete, relevant & accurate info is accessible & available to support financial & performance reporting.  Implement controls over daily & monthly processing & reconciliation of transactions.  Prepare regular, accurate and complete financial and performance reports that are supported & evidenced by reliable info.  Review & monitor compliance with applicable Laws and regulations.  Design & Implement formal controls over IT systems. Executive Authority  Well placed to bring about improvements in the audit outcomes by becoming more actively involved in key governance matters and by managing the performance of the accounting officers & authorities.

Accounting officers/ authorities  Provide effective and ethical leadership, and exercise oversight over financial and performance reporting and compliance with legislation.  Implement effective HR management to ensure that adequate & sufficiently skilled staff are employed & that performance is monitored  Establish policies and procedures to enable sustainable internal control practices, and monitor the implementation of action plans to address internal control deficiencies.  Establish an IT governance framework that supports and enables the achievement of objectives, delivers value and improves performance.  Implement risk management activities to ensure that regular risk assessments, including IT risks and fraud prevention are conducted, including a risk management strategy.  Ensure that an adequate resourced & functioning internal audit unit is in place & that internal audit reports are responded to.  Support the audit committee & ensure that its reports are responded to.

Internal Audit  Assists accounting officers and authorities in the execution of their duties by providing independent assurance on internal controls, financial info, risk management, performance management and compliance with legislation Audit Committee  Advises the accounting officer or authority, senior management & the executive authorities on matters such as internal controls, risk management, performance management as well as the evaluation of, and compliance with legislation.  Provides assurance of the adequacy, reliability and accuracy of financial & performance info. Coordinating Institutions Provincial treasuries & National Treasury  Supports public service entities through strategic support plans, frameworks & guidance documents to improve financial management & audit outcomes. Office of the Premier  The offices in the 9 provinces provide assurance on the credibility of the provinces’ financial statements & performance reports.

Coordinating Institutions Department of Public Service and Administration  Human Resource Management: Establish norms & standards relating to skills, capacity, vacancies & performance management  The management of IT: Manage & oversee ICT policy and planning in the public sector  Compliance with legislation by departments: Establish regulations & codes of conduct regarding integrity, ethics, conduct & anti-corruption in the public sector. Department of Performance Monitoring & Evaluation  Facilitates the development of plans/delivery agreements for the cross-cutting priorities or outcomes of government and monitor & evaluate the implementation of these plans  Monitor the performance of individual performance of individual national & provincial government departments  Monitor frontline service delivery  Manage the presidential Hotline  Perform evaluations of the major & strategic government programmes.  Promote good monitoring & evaluation practices in government.

National Portfolio Committee  They monitor and oversee the work and budgets of national government departments and hold them accountable.  They examine specific areas of public life or matters of public interest.  They take care of domestic parliamentary issues Committees have the power to summon any person to appear before them, give evidence or produce documents. They may require any person or institution to report to them. Committees may also receive petitions, representations or submissions from the public. Each Committee is headed by a Chairperson.

Provincial Committee & Provincial Public Accounts Committee  91 provincial portfolio committees to provide oversight responsibilities. National Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA)  Conduct hearings during which it extracts commitments from ministers & executive authorities to take corrective actions on audit findings.  The committee undertakes oversight visits to various departments based on the assessment of responses gained during the hearings, such visits enable SCOPA to strengthen its resolutions by including practical evidence of issues of service delivery.

AGSA Constitutional mandate National Treasury Chief Audit Executive (CAE) Forum Legislation and regulations Institute of Directors Public Sector Audit Committee Forum (PSACF) Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) in South Africa