The clean audit opinion issued by the
Auditor-General South Africa is one of the highlights contained in the
Electoral Commission’s latest annual report which was presented to the National
Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs yesterday.
Electoral Commission Chairperson Glen
Mashinini and Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo led a delegation which tabled
the report, which covers the 2020/21 financial year, before the Portfolio
Committee.
Both Mashinini and Mamabolo expressed
their pride at the achievement of the Electoral Commission’s finance team, led
by Chief Financial Officer Dawn Mbatha, which achieved the first clean audit in
five years.
Mamabolo said: “I am immensely proud of
this report for the reason that the Auditor-General South Africa issued us with
a clean audit opinion. Our institution is ever committed to the highest levels
of financial probity. This financial year was like no other in that the
Coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak health and economic havoc in South
Africa and around the world. Members of staff of the Electoral Commission were
either infected or affected by the pandemic in one way or another.”
Mashinini told MPs: “The Electoral
Commission prides itself for having delivered a succession of credible, free,
fair and successful elections in the past 27 years. In delivering these
elections, the Electoral Commission has met its Constitutional obligations.”
“Important
in any election is transparency, accountability and ethical conduct by all
involved in this crucial exercise of democracy. Accountability and transparency
are the main reasons we are here. It is important to us that the Electoral
Commission, established in terms of Section 181 of the Constitution, accounts
on a regular basis to Parliament.”
“In addition to appearing before this
committee on a regular basis, our books are audited, on an annual basis, by the
Auditor-General and we have, we are proud to disclose, received favourable and
positive audit outcomes.”
The 2021 Annual Report can be downloaded
from the website document library at https://bit.ly/3HqLJGy.