Deadline missed: 49 government departments fail to file annual reports

Parliament is still waiting for 49 annual reports from government departments and public entities, a week after the September 30 deadline.

The delays have the negative effect of slowing down parliament’s constitutional mandate of scrutiny of how they performed, how they spent public money and whether they met the targets set for the 2025/26 financial year.

The latest status of annual reports document shows that 49 of the 244 national departments, public entities and constitutional institutions being tracked had not tabled their reports by October 7. The reports marked in red in the document were those still outstanding at that date.

Among those still outstanding were the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), SABC, Broadband Infraco, Telkom, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), the Road Traffic Infringement Agency, National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), the Public Service Commission, the department of public service & administration, the department of land reform & rural development and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).

The NPA’s report remained outstanding while the department of correctional services had submitted its report on September 28 and the department of police had submitted on September 30.

The September 30 deadline is significant because annual reports are a central part of parliament’s oversight of the executive. They give committees information on an institution’s financial performance, service delivery and progress against its annual plans, allowing MPs to question ministers and accounting officers about whether public money was used as approved.

When reports are not available, committees cannot interrogate the institution’s performance using the full set of information that should have been submitted to parliament. This can affect the timing of committee hearings, oversight reports and recommendations on corrective action.

Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said ministers and other accounting authorities that were unable to table their reports on time had written to speaker Thoko Didiza explaining the delays.

“The speaker considers the late tabling as non-compliance with legislation and the constitutional imperative for transparency,” Mothapo said.

He said Didiza’s office tables the explanations in the same public parliamentary paper in which it would table the reports, thereby referring them publicly to the relevant committees for consideration.

“Committees consider the explanations in open meetings for the benefit of the public,” Mothapo said.

Parliament’s records show that 13 written explanations for late tabling had been received by October 7. They covered SAA, SABC, NYDA, Prasa, the department of public service & administration, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency, NHLS, the department of public works & infrastructure, the department of land reform & rural development, SABS, Broadband Infraco and the department of justice & constitutional development. The Public Service Commission also submitted an explanation.

However, the document provided to Business Day records only that these letters explained the reasons for the delays.