MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA
THE Ingonyama Trust Board will delay submitting its audited finances and annual report to Parliament because it needs to sort out issues related to reporting on its financial matters.
This was revealed by Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza in a letter to the parliamentary presiding officers.
State institutions are expected, in terms of legislation, to submit their audited annual reports to the national legislature at the end of September after they submitted their financial statements for audit purposes to the Office of Auditor-General in May.
In her letter, Didiza said the Public Finance Management Act required her to table in the National Assembly the annual report, financial statements and the audit report on statements within one month after the accounting authority for the public entity received the audit report.
She also said she was also required to give an explanation when the documents were not tabled six months after the end of the financial year.
Didiza explained that the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) had to review the appropriateness of the financial reporting framework of Ingonyama Trust (IT).
She said this had required consultation with the Accountant-General prior to the preparations of the annual financial statements by the board.
“The net effect is that the annual financial statements of the ITB were only submitted to the auditor-general on 31 July 2021, and those of the IT were only submitted on 30 August 2021.
“The auditor-general is consequently still conducting an audit on the ITB and the IT,” Didiza said.
She, however, said Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke had undertaken to submit the ITB audit report by no later than October 1 and the IT audit report by no later than November 1.
Didiza also said the audit reports would now be tabled to the National Assembly by no later than November 12.
“We appreciate the inconvenience that the late filing imposes on Parliament, and we regret that it had to come to this in order to improve the compilation and presentation of annual financial statements,” she said.