Speaker and colleagues, thank you once again for the opportunity, and it is indeed a privilege, to represent my committee, to commend to you the strategic plan of the Auditor-General for your consideration. It contains, amongst other things, the budget for the financial year that is about to commence, namely, 2012 to 2013.
In doing so, I also wish once again to commend the institution for continuing on its path of excellence, thus achieving one of its key objectives, namely of leading by example, as will have been reflected, for example, in the report that I was privileged to present to you on Tuesday this week, which focused on the Annual Report of the Auditor-General, documenting its achievements for the 2010-11 financial year.
The projected budget for the Auditor-General is approximately R2,2 billion and the projected expenses in the form of direct audit costs are R1,5 billion. The difference of approximately R7,7 million is budgeted for other indirect costs such as taxation and other headline costs.
Included in the budget is a projected surplus of about R45 million, which is projected lower than the approximately R232 million surplus that the report we tabled on Tuesday reflected, where we requested you to approve that such a surplus be retained in order to fund continuing projects that are still being pursued by the institution.
The Auditor-General, as an institution, commits itself to five key predetermined objectives against which its performance is to be measured, and you will notice that in its annual report on Tuesday, we reflected on how it had fared in the last financial year. For example, amongst these predetermined objectives is the commitment to achieving clarity, simplicity and relevance in the messages that it gives to auditees. In other words, the objective is to ensure that the standards and requirements of the audit directives against which auditees are audited are clear to auditees upfront, and that they are able to understand what is required of them so that they are able to actually comply with the standards in pursuit of the objective of ultimately achieving clean audits.
Another objective which is contained in the strategic plan is leading by example. As I indicated on Tuesday, it would be a sad day if the Auditor- General as an institution were not itself capable of achieving clean audits and adhering to the same standards that it expects all other auditees to adhere to. Their continued achievement of clean audits in the past gives us confidence that in the year ahead the same achievement will be sustained.
Another objective that is contained in this is visible leadership. In other words, through road shows and other interventions, the Auditor-General is expected to crisscross the country, meet political leadership, meet heads of departments, and ensure that the kinds of challenges that are identified in these audit reports are communicated to them and advice is given to them on the appropriate interventions. Thank you very much and I commend the report to the House. [Time expired.]
There was no debate.
Mr Speaker, I move:
That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.