Dawn says that the audit opinion was because of R20 million in irregular expenditure for the financial year.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has received an unqualified audit opinion on its annual financial statements for the financial year 2019/2020 due to the review of the financial statements not being adequate.
“What stood between the Electoral Commission in getting a clean audit opinion is mainly because of this review paragraph, which resulted in a material adjustment to the financial statements,” IEC CFO Dawn Mbatha told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday when presenting the company’s results.
She explained that the IEC had incurred over R20 million in irregular expenditure, a 513 percent decrease from the previous financial year, where the commission incurred over R130 million in irregular expenditure.
“We also confirmed that there have been five dismissals relating to the irregular expenditure that has been incurred,” she said. “It has also been found that there were no material findings by the office of the Auditor-General of South Africa.”
She added that the AGSA only identified two percent of what is reported of the R20 million in irregular expenditure, and that 98 percent of the fruitless and wasteful expenditure related to petrol card fraud, which has been reported to the authorities.
She further indicated that the IEC had a revenue of R2.136 billion, while its operating expenditure stood at R2 billion, increasing 28 percent year-on-year. “In the 2019/2020 financial year, we have spent close to what we actually received.”
