The Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA) has extended its record of excellence in financial management with yet another unqualified audit opinion for the 2015/16 financial year, the Office of the Auditor-General announced this week. This is the third straight unqualified audit opinion with no findings that GTA has received.
An unqualified opinion implies that the Auditor-General has satisfied himself that the GTA’s financial statements are free of material misstatements and accurately reflect its financial position. GTA also got similar opinions in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years.
GTA CEO Siphiwe Ngwenya thanked staff for making it possible to attain yet another clean audit report. “This is no mean feat and attests to the fact that we, as management and staff, take sound corporate governance seriously,” he said.
Related
“Without the support and leadership of MEC Lebogang Maile and the strategic oversight by the Board of Directors, this achievement would not have been possible.”
Prudent financial management has become even more important against the backdrop of dwindling budget allocations and government efforts to eradicate corruption. “The obtaining adverse economic conditions portend a fiscal squeeze that requires of us to use whatever resources at our disposal wisely while ensuring maximum impact of our programmes, ” Ngwenya added.
“We are happy to be contributing positively to the objective of Premier David Makhura’s administration to achieve clean audits across all departments and government entities. Clean audits will go a long way in ensuring prudent financial management across all levels of government.
“In addition, we are particularly happy that the kudos from the Auditor-General crown a year in which we took gigantic strides in executing our mandate of growing the visitor economy in the Gauteng City Region. We are further encouraged by the fact that the tourism sector has regained its traction despite the tough global economic environment.”
International visitor numbers rose 16.8% for the months of January to April 2016 versus the corresponding period last year. When tourism performs well at national level, Gauteng benefits enormously as a leading provincial destination.
