The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) flagged several issues with the Department of Water and Sanitation and entities in the budgetary review and recommendations report (BRRR) 2025/2026.

The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) flagged poor project management and lack of consequence management in the Department of Water and Sanitation entities, on Tuesday.

Other issues highlighted in the AGSA budgetary review and recommendations report 2025/2026 were weaknesses in financial management and irregular expenditure. The Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation received a briefing by the AGSA for the entities for the 2025/2026 financial year.

Sithembile Ngubane, Senior Manager, AGSA water sector audit team, said that among the AGSA recommendations for 2024/2025 were action plans implemented to address weaknesses in project management, ensuring regular monitoring of project plans and corrective actions taken where necessary for the DWS, Water Trading Entity (WTE) and Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA).

The AGSA said the implementation of consequence management must ensure that appropriate action is taken against underperforming contractors who repeatedly fail to meet expectations.

Ngubane said despite the WTE implementing a procurement strategy using a panel of maintenance service providers to support ongoing project execution, significant project delays persist, although progress was made at DWS in strengthening commitments and management controls.

“However, recurring misstatements and delays in information received from implementing agents indicate that weaknesses in project monitoring and oversight persist. Enhanced accountability, oversight, and consequence management are required to prevent the recurrence of similar findings,” she said.

Ngubane said the number of clean audits had increased from 17% to 33%, but 70% of entities had submitted financial statements containing material misstatements that were only identified during the audit process.

“There are weak financial statement preparation and technical global association of risk professionals application, particularly for revenue, impairments, cash flows and transfer transactions.”

Ngubane said finance units do not have sufficient capacity and skills to deliver quality financial reporting. She said corrective audit action plans are not being effectively implemented and monitored.

Source: https://iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/2026-10-06-auditor-general-flags-project-delays-weak-financial-controls-in-water-entities/