Committee slams ‘depressing’ audit picture as women’s portfolio regresses

The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities regressed from a clean audit, while the Commission for Gender Equality retained an audit with findings, according to the Auditor-General of South Africa’s 2025-26 report.

Members of the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities said they were deeply concerned by the deteriorating audit outcomes and continued governance failures highlighted by the Auditor-General (AG).

The concerns emerged during a briefing on the department’s and commission’s audit outcomes, where the AG confirmed the department’s regression and the commission’s unchanged outcome.

‘Terribly depressing picture’

Committee chairperson Liezl van der Merwe described the findings as deeply concerning and as reflecting challenges the committee has repeatedly raised with the department and its entities.

“I think if we are very honest with ourselves, the AG has painted a terribly depressing picture for us this morning. It’s depressing because the portfolio meant to look after the most vulnerable in our society is moving backwards and not forwards.

“And what is equally depressing for me is the fact that the AG is raising many of the issues that this portfolio committee has been raising with our department and the CGE.”

The committee noted that long-standing issues relating to vacancies, leadership instability, weak internal controls and poor performance reporting continue to undermine the department’s ability to execute its mandate effectively.

Van der Merwe said the committee has repeatedly questioned the department about the continued rollover of vacancies and the instability in senior leadership positions.

“We’ve met and discussed the issues of vacancies. There’s always this continuous rollover of the vacancies. We have raised the issue of the leadership instability at our department. We are on our third Director General within the department.”

Credibility of performance information under fire

The committee said the department needs proper succession planning so that it continues to function when a senior manager resigns.

“We have raised the issue, for example, about the fact that our department is not able to provide credible performance reports. The AG’s office has highlighted that as well,” said Van der Merwe.

Committee members agreed that the department’s inability to provide credible performance information makes it difficult to determine whether public funds are achieving meaningful outcomes for women, youth and persons with disabilities.

They questioned why similar findings continue to be raised year after year, despite audit action plans and repeated oversight interventions.

Calls for consequence management

Committee member Dr Kgosi Letlape called for decisive action against officials who fail to comply with procurement and financial management prescripts, arguing that accountability has been lacking across the public sector.

“We really, really need to get a report from the department on the issue of consequence management. Our country is going astray because whatever people do wrong there’s no consequence. Whether it’s men in relation to gender-based violence and femicide or officials that are paid to do a job and the job is not done.”

Members said claims of underfunding should be accompanied by detailed plans demonstrating how additional resources would improve performance and service delivery.

“We can no longer just accept generic statements that say, ‘We are underfunded’. Yes, resources are scarce, but what we need are proper plans and proper resources with what they are going to deliver with those resources.”

Committee members questioned whether the department’s challenges stem solely from vacancies or from a broader capacity problem within senior management structures.

One member, Samantha Graham-Mare, suggested that senior management must take responsibility for the poor quality of financial reporting, weak compliance monitoring and the failure to address previous audit findings.

The committee also questioned the effectiveness of the department’s Audit and Risk Committee and internal audit structures and sought the AG’s views on whether weaknesses in these areas contributed to the regression in audit outcomes.

Irregular expenditure and investigations

Several members raised concerns about the substantial amount of irregular expenditure reported during the audit process and questioned the progress of investigations into these matters.

Members asked how much of the irregular expenditure had been investigated, whether officials had been held accountable and what measures were being put in place to prevent future occurrences.

The portfolio recorded R64.1 million in closing irregular expenditure for 2025-26. Of this amount, R51.7 million (81%) had not been dealt with. The department accounted for R43.2 million of the unresolved amount, while the commission accounted for R8.4 million.

The AG said R42.3 million involving the department and R7.4 million involving the commission had been investigated but were still awaiting condonation. A further R924 000 at the department and R986 000 at the commission had not yet been investigated.

Leadership vacancies undermine oversight

The AG linked the poor outcomes to institutional instability and vacancies.

At the department, the overall vacancy rate rose to 11.6%, while senior management vacancies stood at 16.2%. The accounting officer position was also unstable.

At the commission, the overall vacancy rate was 4%, but 14% of senior management posts were vacant.

The report said the department’s instability in the accounting officer position, together with the vacancies, had “continued to undermine institutional capacity and accountability”.