The impact of material irregularity provisions of the Public Audit Act on accountability, oversight and governance in the Northern Cape province of South Africa

Africa's Public Service Delivery and Performance Review

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The impact of material irregularity provisions of the Public Audit Act on accountability, oversight and governance in the Northern Cape province of South Africa
 
Creator Gasela, Moses M.
 
Subject Economics; Management Sciences material irregularity; accountability; oversight; governance; consequence management; South African public sector
Description Background: A lot of research on audit-related services and accountability in the international and African contexts has been conducted. However, none of those empirical investigations have been done in the South African context, focussing specifically, on how the material irregularity (MI) of the recently amended Public Audit Act impacts accountability, governance and oversight.Aim: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of middle and senior managers in the Northern Cape provincial administration on the impact of the implementation of the MI provisions of the amended Public Audit Act on accountability, oversight and governance. The focus of the investigation was the recommendation strand of MI.Setting: Northern Cape provincial administration with regard to MI provisions of the Public Audit Act in relation to accountability, oversight and governance.Method: The survey design and a stratified sample of 200 middle and senior managers were used. The response rate was 68.5%. Regression analysis was done.Results: It was found that the implementation of MI provisions of the amended Public Audit Act positively impacts on accountability, governance and oversight. The MI serves as a deterrent to future wrongdoing in the provincial administration. This finding implies that MI processes have significant value creation and protection in the South African public finances through deterrence even though that cannot be quantified in monetary terms.Conclusion: The study recommends that government should cooperate and encourage the implementation of the MI provisions to improve accountability, governance and oversight in the event when MI is detected or suspected during the audit process.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-01-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — survey design; quantitative methods
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/apsdpr.v10i1.601
 
Source Africa’s Public Service Delivery & Performance Review; Vol 10, No 1 (2022); 10 pages 2310-2152 2310-2195
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/601/1054 https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/601/1055 https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/601/1056 https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/601/1057
 
Coverage Northern Cape province; South Africa 2021 Stratified random sample; 200 middle and senior managers
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Moses M. Gasela https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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