The Director-General of the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic), Mr Lionel October has once more welcomed unqualified audit opinion with no findings, commonly referred to as a “clean audit” for the former Departments of Trade and Industry, Economic Development Department and the majority of their entities for the 2019/20 financial year. The tabling of the annual reports for both departments form part of the concluding processes as both departments has successfully merged into the newly formed Department of Trade Industry and Competition.
The Auditor-General presented the audit outcomes during the annual report presentation to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade Industry and Competition yesterday. The Auditor-General commended the leadership and management of both departments and stated that the number of clean audits in the dtic’s portfolio is an indication of effective leadership which sets the correct tone at the top and provided sufficient oversight support.
the dti and 10 of their entities achieved clean audits. The entities include the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, Companies Tribunal, National Consumer Commission, National Consumer Tribunal, National Credit Regulator, National Gambling Board, National Empowerment Fund, Export Credit Insurance Corporation, National Metrology Institute of South Africa and National Lotteries Commission. The South African Bureau of Standards and South African National Accreditation System obtained financially unqualified audit opinions with findings, whilst the audit for the National Regulator for Compulsory Specification is to be finalised by the end of November 2020.
EDD and 3 of its entities, Competition Commission, Competition Tribunal and International Trade Administration Commission also achieved clean audits, while the Industrial Development Corporation obtained a financially unqualified opinion with findings.
“The clean audit for both Departments and agencies is an indication of a strong governance that works actively with the private sector to transform the face of business in the country, maximising our limited resources to grow the economy. This also demonstrates the efforts that were put in place by management, to ensure that internal control systems remained effective and were even further enhanced in many instances.” said October.
October added that the mandate and goals of the new the dtic is to continously fight for growth, industrialisation and transformation through the transfer of real power to previously disadvantaged communities.
Of the R9.97 billion spent by the dti, R5.7 billion was disbursed to beneficiaries across the various incentive programmes. R3.2 billion went to , beneficiaries in the auto, black industrialist, agro-processing and industrial loan facility for manufacturers under the manufacturing development incentive programmes.
R1.32 billion was transferred to public entities. Furthermore, R982.4 million was disbursed to various external programmes, non profit organisations as well as international organisations of which South Africa is a member of, accounted for R208.5 million.
Although we were forced to cancel a number of our trade missions to various countries due to the pandemic, our Trade and Investment division still managed to generate a total of R2.672 billion of export sales and financial assistance was provided to 828 companies through our Export Marketing and Investment Assistance Scheme,” added October.
In the financial year under review, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) disbursed R11.7 billion.
Over the past five years, the IDC’s strong track record in facilitating economic transformation has been exhibited by R24.5 billion funding support to Black Industrialists – R42.6 billion if all black-empowered firms were collated.
R11.7 billion was committed to women-empowered enterprises and R6 billion to youth-empowered enterprises.
During the financial year under review, the Competition Amendment Act was implemented and final Market Inquiry reports on Data and Grocery Retail were also released.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe-Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: (012) 394 1650
Mobile: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
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