Reference

Remarks

E1.1 E1.2

Treasury Regulation 17.1.2 determines, and should it be necessary in exceptional cases, to account for revenue and expenditure transactions in a clearing or suspense account because the classification has not been resolved, the accounting officer must ensure that :

E1.3

In terms of Treasury Regulation 17.1.1 all transactions of a department must be supported by authentic and verifiable source documents, clearly indicating the approved accounting allocation.

E1.4

The accounting officer is responsible for establishing systems, procedures and processes to ensure efficient and effective banking management. Sound banking management includes performing bank reconciliation on a daily basis to detect any unauthorised entries.

E1.5

Practice Note 13 of 2002 requires an accounting officer to certify on a monthly basis that the following financial management performance indicators has taken place, before the closure of the accounting month :

E2.1

Departments annually compile a complete estimate of expenditure to be pursued per objective. This results in the cost of all departmental activities being determined and made available to decision makers within the framework of a suitable objective or programme structure, i.e. a structure reflecting the programmes, sub-programmes and lower sub-divisions into elements and activities for the achievement of each objective. It is therefore important that the objective structure within the general ledger be aligned with the approved structure of the estimate of expenditure of the department.

E2.2

It remains essential to identify which organisational component (regional office, division, component) within a department has requested funds for a specific objective. In other words, an estimate of expenditure must be compiled for each centre of financial responsibility, i.e. each organisational unit entrusted with the task of submitting a draft estimate and accounting for expenditure against such estimate.

E2.3

E2.4

"Outdated" organisational and establishment structures negatively influence –

In term of Treasury Practice Note No. 19 of 2001, accounting officers must instate measures to deal with these issues by ensuring that the current approved establishment is captured onto the PERSAL system and there is suitable absorption of employees into posts on the approved establishment.

E2.5 E2.6

Maintenance of departmental technical infrastructure (i.e. hardware, software, networks and training related issues) is the sole responsibility of the accounting officer. Proper management of such infrastructure is of the utmost importance to ensure acceptable uptime and response times of financial applications.

E2.7 E2.8

The goal of computer security is to institute controls that preserve secrecy, integrity and availability of information. It is therefore of the utmost importance to control access to departmental data and activity within departmental databases. For batch systems, it is essential to implement and maintain proper batch control systems to manage and control access to departmental databases. For online systems, it is essential to manage and control access of individual users by implementing a procedure and maintaining control of:

E3.1

The accounting officer of a department must :

- the information for that month;

- a projection of expected expenditure and revenue collection for the remainder of the        current financial year; and

- when necessary, an explanation of any material variances and a summary of the steps that are taken to ensure that the projected expenditure and revenue remain within budget.

E4.1

The accounting officer of a department must establish procedures for quarterly reporting to the executive authority to facilitate effective performance monitoring, evaluation and corrective action regarding the strategic plan.

E4.2

The accounting officer for a department must ensure that, within thirty days of the end of each quarter, the public entity submits a report on its actual revenue and expenditure up to the end of that quarter.

E4.3

The accounting authority of schedule 3A and 3C public entity must report to the executive authority through the accounting officer of a department on the extent of compliance on the PFMA and related Treasury Regulations quarterly. Any non-compliance must be reported together with reasons for non-compliance.

E5.1

The accounting officer for a department, trading entity or constitutional institution :

E5.2

The accounting officer must, within five months of the end of a financial year, submit to the relevant treasury and in the case of a department or trading entity, also to the executive authority responsible for that department or trading entity :

Accounting officers of constitutional institutions must, within five months from the end of the financial year, submit their institution’s annual report, financial statements and the Auditor- General’s report on those statements to Parliament

E5.3 E5.4

The executive authority responsible for a department or public entity must table, in the National Assembly or a provincial legislature, as may be appropriate :

- the executive authority must table a written explanation in legislature setting out the reasons why they were not tabled; and

E5.5

The accountability cycle is completed with the production and publication of an annual report, which reviews performance and achievement against the strategic plan and the budget approved by the legislature at the start of the year. Section 40(3) of the PFMA requires each department to publish an annual report that 'fairly presents' the state of its affairs, its financial results and position at the end of the financial year, and its performance against predetermined objectives. The annual report must include particulars of any material losses through criminal conduct, and any unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, together with any criminal proceedings or disciplinary steps taken as a result of such losses. In preparing the annual report of a department the accounting officer must also take cognisance of the requirements of Chapter 18 of the Treasury Regulations and PSR, Chapter 1, Part III J.

E5.6

The accounting officer must, on an annual basis, submit to the provincial treasury (if applicable) National Treasury and Auditor-General a schedule of the outcome of any disciplinary proceedings and/or criminal charges; the names and ranks of officials involved; and the sanctions and any further actions taken against these officials. The schedule mentioned above must be accompanied by a report which refers to any changes made to the department's systems of financial and risk management as a result of any investigations.

E5.7

An accounting officer of a department operating a trading entity must, at the end of each financial year and after books of account have been closed, declare any surpluses or deficit to the relevant treasury. The relevant treasury may apply such surplus to reduce any proposed allocation to the trading entity, or require that all or part of it be re-deposited in the Exchequer bank account.