At the end of year one of the NSP, the Secretariat was audited by the Auditor-General and received an unqualified audit opinion. This is a remarkable achievement as the Secretariat has not previously presented financial statements to the Trustees or had them externally audited (except for the review of the dormant Trust account carried out under the aegis of the national Department of Health (DoH) audit.
An unqualified audit opinion does not mean that all systems are operating optimally, and the Secretariat still has a long road to travel to build up its full capability. It does, however, give confidence to donors and the public that the management team is able to truly reflect the financials for the institution, and show that the funds were used for their intended purpose. The financial statements and audit opinion will be published in the soon to be released Annual report and will also be available on the website before the end of October.
The main implication of setting up the Secretariat as a fully functional independent institution with its own governance structures is that this will restore the confidence of donors in the Secretariat. Already, funding from government has increased and one donor has deposited funds directly into the Trust account with two potential donors coming on stream in the next six to eight months.
Setting up the internal systems of an institution is work that is unseen and generally unreported. In this case, the institutional problems of the Secretariat were cause for concern and it is essential that we communicate this progress. The progress made has been the result of hard work done by the Trustees, corporate services staff at the Secretariat and the Audit and Risk Committee.