Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke's 124-page report on the audit outcomes for the national and provincial governments for the 2022/23 financial year shows overall improved audit outcomes -- with some lingering weaknesses.

Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke has reported "an overall improvement" in the national and provincial government audit outcomes for the 2022/23 financial year.

"The number of clean audits has increased quite significantly, and I think that's quite important," Maluleke said while tabling the 2022/23 general report for national and provincial departments, their entities and legislatures to Parliament's standing committee on the AG on Wednesday.

Overall, the audit outcomes of both departments and public entities improved and more auditees improved their audit outcomes each year of the administrative term than regressed. A total of 37 auditees (9%) showed a net improvement in their audit outcomes in 2022/23 -- the biggest movement over the four-year period, according to Maluleke's report.

Provincial governments showed a net improvement of 44 (27%). The national government showed a net improvement of 34 (15%).

National audit outcomes

Of the total 418 auditees, the 147 auditees (35%) that achieved clean audits in 2022/23 managed 16% of the R3.10-trillion expenditure budget in national and provincial government, according to Maluleke's report. (In 2021/22, 30% of the auditees had a clean audit, compared with 27.7% in 2020/21.) Additionally, the 162 auditees (39%) that received unqualified audit opinions with findings managed...