House Chair, we join hands with the committee chairperson in congratulating the current Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, and his department on setting what can only be regarded as a very good example, by receiving their excellent, clean audits. They provide this example to the many municipalities that they go out to audit, and it would be great if the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, could eventually get its act together and also set an example like this.
We must not underestimate the importance of the role that the Auditor- General plays in fulfilling the constitutional mandate for oversight, accountability and, most importantly, to build public confidence in our government and our structures. In order to foster this public confidence requires not only for the report to be made, but for action to then be taken upon those reports. I think it is incumbent on Parliament itself to ensure that the reports of the Auditor-General are taken very seriously and that there are concrete action steps taken to ensure that the recommendations and findings are dealt with comprehensively. Far too often these reports just simply go away and disappear.
We also welcome the Auditor-General's reports and his work done on performance against predetermined objectives, which is a very useful tool for members to hold government to account. We noticed with some dismay in the committee that 74% of all arrears owed to the Auditor-General are from municipalities that cannot afford to pay for these services, and we think this needs to be given some very, very serious attention.
We support the retention of the surplus within the department and hope that it is going to be ploughed into assisting the Auditor-General to further the work that they are doing. We believe that it is incumbent upon all of us in this House - not only the members of the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General, Scoag, and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, but across all committees - to vigorously defend the independence of the institution of the Auditor-General ... [Interjections.] ... so that we can continue to hold government to account and ensure that the taxpayers and citizens of this country are getting real value for money. Thank you. [Interjections.]