Auditor-General of South Africa

Description: The Auditor-General of South Africa has a constitutional mandate and, as the supreme audit institution (SAI) of South Africa, it exists to strengthen the country’s democracy by enabling oversight, accountability and governance in the public sector through auditing, thereby building public confidence. The Auditor-General of South Africa is a chapter 9 institution and has been established in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The functions of the AGSA are described in section 188 of the Constitution and further regulated in the Public Audit Act, 2004 (Act No. 25 of 2004) (PAA), which mandates the AGSA to perform constitutional and other functions. Constitutional functions are those which the AGSA performs to comply with the broader mandate described in the Constitution. Section 4 of the PAA makes a further distinction between mandatory and discretionary audits.