Submitted by freenet on Sat, 18/12/2010 - 14:19
CHANNELS:
Pretoria - Two divisions of the Gauteng Finance Department - the Gauteng Treasury (GT) and Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC) - received unqualified audit reports from the Auditor General.
Gauteng Finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe made the announcement while tabling the 2009/2010 annual report for both the Treasury and GSSC at the provincial legislature on Monday.
"I am pleased with the performance of the department in the previous financial year. These results were achieved during the transition, which is always a challenging period in any organisation," he said.
Nkomfe said Treasury spearheaded a comprehensive re-prioritisation process last year, in response to the challenges of global economic downturn. The process involved shifting limited financial resources from non-core to core functions, as per the priorities of the new administration.
"At the same time, a cost-saving exercise was undertaken. Money was surrendered by various provincial departments.
"Figures contained in the 2009/2010 Provincial Adjustment Appropriation Bill indicate that R87.6 million was surrendered to the Provincial Revenue Fund as savings realised.
"We also reviewed and renegotiated or cancelled those contracts that were either not providing value for money for government; or not in line with our priorities," he said.
During the period under review, GSSC processed and awarded 80 tenders with a total value of R2.2 billion.
In an effort to promote the small agricultural sector, 18 emerging farmers falling within the historically disadvantaged individuals and youth categories were awarded a contract to supply fresh produce to the provincial government, in particular hospitals.
Improved contract management processes led to cost savings in the following areas: 16.8 percent on medical equipment, 24 percent on cellular services, 16 percent on assets and 7 percent on travelling costs.
The Gauteng Audit Services, a unit that provides a full spectrum of internal audit services to all provincial government departments and agencies, completed 126 audits against a target of 124 during the period under review.
"GSSC has shown resilience with the last three unqualified audit reports by the Auditor General. This resilience has also expressed itself through our people during the period when the reconfiguration was undertaken by the provincial administration," Nkomfe said. - BuaNews