Weak leadership and the high turnover of top executives are fuelling the dismal audit performance of government departments and institutions funded by the taxpayer, the auditor-general's office and the Treasury told MPs. Even the presidency, the department of defence and the public protector received qualified audits last year. 
At the first parliamentary committee meeting of the year, officials from the two offices said there had been little improvement since 2008 in the overall performance of the 256 operations funded by public money.
They were giving a high-level overview of the trends shown in audit reports released last year.
Only 91 out of the 256 entities achieved a clean audit in the financial year to March 2009.
Eight were so poorly run that no audit was possible, two were given adverse audits, meaning they had generally failed to implement proper financial management, and 33 received qualified audits indicating severe failures.
Another 118 produced adequate financial statements, but had issues ranging from inadequate documentation that was completed only with help from auditors to serious but correctable lapses of financial or asset management.
In percentage terms, the number of state institutions gaining a clear audit has slipped from 38% five years ago year to 35% last year.
"It is a disappointing and concerning picture in that the pace of change is slow," said Jillian Bailey, head of audit in the auditor-general's office.
"Adequate leadership involvement and oversight must set the tone from the top and create an environment conducive to good financial management and service delivery."
Warning of a downward trend in some areas, Bailey said 88% of government departments were showing signs of failure in human resource management and 86% of dangerously inadequate information system security.
Kimi Makwetu, the deputy auditor-general, said things would not improve until the top leadership of departments and government entities became committed to ensuring proper financial management.
"We're talking about basic disciplines. It has not yet moved to the level of complexity of accounting and financial management."
Six officials from the two departments painted the same picture of poor top-level leadership and uncertainty created by the high turnover of chief executives and chief financial officers.
The officials said things would not improve significantly until top executives accepted personal responsibility for the crisis.
The auditor-general does not oversee state-owned enterprises such as Eskom, Transnet and SAA, but the concern about leaderless public institutions comes amid a crisis that has left all three, as well as the arms companies Denel and Armscor, which received a clean audit last year, with acting chief executives who are unable to take strategic decisions.
Bailey said the biggest failing among national government departments was in the management of capital assets ranging from land to buildings and equipment. She said nearly all departments lacked the skills to properly track what departments owned.
State entities mainly had problems controlling income and expenditure. These entities range from the South African Local Government Association, which could not produce auditable financial records, to sector education and training authorities, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Robben Island museum and the Council for the Built Environment.
MPs from all parties vied to deliver the sharpest rebukes after hearing the overview.
"Sometimes one thinks that some of these departments are being run like a spaza shop," said Narend Singh of the IFP.
Picking up the theme, the ANC's Sarah Mangena said the Treasury should help in the selection of chief financial officers: "You find that we take a person just because this person was good at arithmetic, but this person really can only run a spaza shop. This person cannot run a department's budget."
Mangena took a tough line on corruption, too: "If a person has taken R104-million, why can't this person bring that money back. If he can't, let him sell his wife and children so we can recover this money."
Deetlefs du Toit of the DA was among MPs who demanded to know how the government planned to break the pattern of poor financial management. "I don't know whether to call this a catastrophe or a disaster," he said.
MPs also complained that the auditor-general's report is similar every year with little progress in enforcing recommendations.
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