And mpat results

Managing Public Entities

• Six public entities account to the Minister. These are
• Agriculture Research Council,
• Onderstepoort Biological products,
• National Agriculture Marketing Council,
• Ncera farms
• Perishable Product Export Certification Board, and
• Marine Living Resources fund
• They play a vital role in support of the department and performance on Outcome 4 and 7. However, the current assessment of DAFF presumably include the contributions by these entities.
• DPME is in a process of developing guidelines for purposes of assessing the performance of SOEs, independently.

Auditor-General’s findings: 2016/17 Report

• Unqualified audit opinion for 2016/17 in respect of the financial information
• Irregular and fruitless expenditure to the amount of R2,806 million and R380 thousand, respectively, were identified in the 2016/17 financial year.
• Capacity to spent is limited with DAFF spending R 6.490 827 bn to the end of 2016/17 FY out of a budget of R 6.514 965 bn (99.6%) leaving funds unspent of R 24.1 million (DAFF Annual report 2016/17). E.g.,
• The expenditure to the amount of R23,014 million for capital works in respect of the Stellenbosch-Plant Quarantine Station: upgrading and maintenance of building and laboratories and other capital works projects not incurred owing to the delays in the Department of Public Works’ processes.
• Expenditure to the amount of R5,936 million in respect of CASP Indirect Grant: Fodder for animal feed was not fully incurred owing to delay in distributing fodder to Northern Cape farmers following the late implementation of SCM by the Northern Cape Province.
• Leadership
• Management did not adequately oversee performance planning and compliance to ensure that performance targets were specific in clearly identifying the nature and required level of performance.
• Action plans for the implementation of audit recommendations was not adequately monitored, resulting in a recurrence of material audit findings.
• Financial and performance management
• The department did not always implement adequate reviewing and monitoring controls over information received from the branches and regions for reporting purposes. This resulted in the performance report and financial statements being subjected to material corrections after having been submitted for auditing.