A clean audit does not mean a department has got everything right. Sometimes it means the mistakes were found and fixed before the opinion was signed. Without corrections during the audit, only 59% of auditees would have been unmodified in 2024-25. Eighty-one percent were. Here is what that gap hides, and what to ask instead.

A R2.3 billion audit finding. The supplier was good. The work got done. The price was fair. None of that helped. In the public sector, a finding is rarely about the quality of the work. It is about the process, the budget, and the outcome — and if you cannot tell the difference between irregular, unauthorised, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, you are already at risk.

R120 billion in irregular expenditure isn’t just a number, it’s a warning. Behind every “just process it” instruction is a finance professional forced to choose between compliance and career risk. The PFMA is clear: accountability doesn’t move up the chain with verbal approvals, it stays with you. In a system where consequences are inconsistent, your judgment becomes the last line of defence between governance and failure.