The outcome of a draft Cabinet memorandum requesting for authority to draw an Audit Bill which was re-circulated in December 2009 is expected early this year.

The Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Lesego Motsumi said this on Tuesday when she was presenting the budget for the office of the Auditor General (OAG).

Motsumi told parliament that collaboration between OAG, the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) and the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E) secretariat led to the re-engineering of the audit process.

"This will reduce the amount of time spent on each audit assignment and thereby increasing the audit coverage," Motsumi said.

She told the house that last year, she reported that the Auditor General was working under difficult conditions due to shortage of office accommodation. Regrettably, she said, the situation has not improved but expressed hope that the situation would be addressed in the future.

Motsumi told the house that for the financial year ending March 31, 2010, she requested P38, 278,700 for the OAG, which she said, was reduced to P35, 599,190 during the year on account of budgetary constraints.

Motsumi also told the house that the OAG has taken a decision to take the auditing of community junior secondary schools from private audit firms. However, she told the House that due to capacity constraints some audits would be outsourced during 2010/2011.