Human Settlements department, best in public sector reporting
24 October 2012
The Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements has added another prestigious accolade in its performance. The Department is the Provincial winner of the Annual Public Sector Awards for 2012. The Southern African Institute of Government Auditors (SAIGA) conferred the award to the Department after achieving an overall score of 729/776 (93.94%) in the Provincial Departments Category. The Department was followed by the Department of Finance in this year’s performance. The Award Panel and the Technical Award Committee is constituted from SAIGA office bearers, experts in the field of public sector reporting, representatives of the Accountant-General and Auditor-General and academics.
The SAIGA’s Annual Public Sector Reporting Awards are intended to encourage both national and provincial government departments to prepare annual financial statements in compliance with statutory requirements. These annual financial statements will further, strive to comply with both local and international reporting standards, informative and comparable, consistent, properly explain the financial results and the financial position of the department in relation to its performance objectives, enable users to analyse the financial results, objective and relevant, have a good balance between comprehensiveness and brevity, be understandable and useable by the main stakeholders.
The institute has identified the need to introduce awards that will recognise the pursuit of excellence in the annual reports published by public sector departments. These awards are a contribution to assist Treasury and public sector departments to meet the objectives of the Public Finance Management Act and related regulations (such as the Treasury Regulations) that aim to advance accountability and transparency in the public sector. “The accolade will help boost public confidence about the department’s endeavours in delivering better and much needed services”, charges MEC Siphosezwe Masango.
It is envisaged that this exercise will facilitate the harmonisation with international best practice, rather than a “big bang” approach to instantly reform accounting and reporting practices. The overall winner in the national category is the Department of Agriculture (Western Cape) with a score of 754 points out of a total of 776 points (97.16%). The Department of Human Settlements achieved position six at the national category. The awards are managed and administered by an independent Institute which has been active in the public arena for the last thirteen years. Visit http://www.saiga.co.za/reporting-awards-2012.htm for more information.
Contact person:
Freddy Ngobe
Tel: 013 766 6014
Cell: 082 859 4630
ISSUED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTORATE MPUMALANGA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
