Page 85 - DUT Annual Report 2023

The strength of an organisation’s control environment is directly linked to the effectiveness of the internal audit function (IAF).
date in January 2024. This will, optimistically, contribute towards mitigating against the integrity of reporting risk, whilst presenting an opportunity for further muscling the university’s project management competencies.
The strength of an organisation’s control environment is directly linked to the effectiveness of the internal audit function (IAF). Informing the cardinal significance of an IAF is its ability to track and stay abreast with market trends, keenly understand how such best practices relate to the local context of the university context, and its appetite for marrying those two perspectives in providing professional advice to management. Hence, the DUT’s continued posture of outsourcing the internal audit function, which, for the current year, remained with Ngubane and Company. The ongoing tracking of progress in terms of the implementation of audit recommendations, reporting thereof to both management structures and the Audit Committee was maintained with consistency during 2023.
S. NYANGINTSIMBI
Chief Risk Officer
Combined Assurance that Mirrors a
Shared Responsibility Posture
Illustrative of a deepened learning organisation posture that goes with a forward-looking orientation, the university’s combined assurance framework emanates from the institutional strategy, rather than the other way round. Specifically, ENVISION2030 embeds the practice of Shared Responsibility, which is a broader concept than the combined assurance framework; similarly, it embeds Institutional Culture, which is a notion that includes the coordination of interdependencies. Therefore, the DUT has continued to implement these governance initiatives through 2023 as well, in an effort to mitigate against any inherent limitations to DUT’s system of internal control. Hence, as an additional measure, the university continued to maintain the external service provider who coordinates the whistleblowing initiative. Reports emanating therefrom have been diligently investigated, corrective action implemented, and consequence implemented where deemed appropriate. Thus, serving to also supplement the university’s Internal Control Manual.
The Audit Committee approved this report at its meeting on June 18th, 2024.
N. GALENI
Chairperson, Audit Committee
DUT ANNUAL REPORT 2023
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