From Audit Findings to Action: UNIVEN Charts a Bold Path Towards a Clean Audit

The University of Venda (UNIVEN) is turning the lessons of its 2025 audit into a renewed drive for stronger financial governance, accountability, and long-term sustainability, following a two-day Post-Audit Reflection Workshop that brought together senior management, Finance, Internal Audit, External Audit, and key business units. The workshop took place at Nandoni Waterfront – Ha Mphego, just outside Thohoyandou, from 24 to 25 August 2026.

In the picture: Participants posing for a photo with the CFO, Ms Madzhie (fifth from right)

Held as a platform for honest reflection and practical action, the workshop moved beyond simply reviewing audit findings. Instead, it focused on understanding their root causes, strengthening internal controls, and developing sustainable interventions to improve future audit outcomes and protect the University’s resources.

Prof Freddy Munzhelele

Opening the workshop, Prof Freddy Munzhelele, Head of the Department of Accountancy in the Faculty of Management, Commerce and Law, encouraged participants to engage openly and constructively, stressing that the success of the process depended on the collective contribution of everyone, regardless of position.

Ms Mavis Madzhie

Chief Financial Offi cer (CFO) Ms Mavis Madzhie set the tone by emphasising that the workshop was not merely a compliance exercise, but an opportunity to confront recurring challenges and fi nd practical solutions. While acknowledging an increase in audit fi ndings over recent years,, she highlighted the improvement in grant-related audit fi ndings as clear evidence that meaningful progress can be achieved through the effective implementation of corrective measures.
“We must move from defending findings to understanding why they happen,” was the central message underpinning the discussions.
Ms Madzhie linked the post-audit process directly to the University’s 2026–2030 Strategic Plan and its focus on fi nancial sustainability, calling for clear, measurable, and accountable action plans that will strengthen stakeholder confidence and place UNIVEN firmly on the road towards a clean audit by 2030.
The workshop also highlighted the importance of shifting from a year-end audit mindset to a culture of continuous audit readiness.

Ms Charlotte Makaringe

Acting Director: Financial Management and Reporting, Ms Charlotte Makaringe, emphasised that audit fi ndings should be addressed at their source rather than repeatedly corrected during the audit process. She called for stronger preventative and detective controls, regular reconciliations, clear accountability, realistic implementation timelines, and reliable evidence to support corrective actions.

L-R: Mr George Haggins and Ms Diana Makwarela

Internal Audit’s reflection, presented by Ms Diana Makwarela, Director, Internal Audit, and IFRS specialist Mr George Higgins, reinforced this message. The review identifi ed areas requiring improvement, including accounting policies, asset registers, revenue disclosures, employee benefi ts, and governance information.
The discussion positioned these fi ndings as opportunities to strengthen institutional processes and controls, while reinforcing the importance of continuous improvement and effective governance. Internal Audit, therefore, advocated a more integrated and continuous assurance approach, with greater emphasis on reconciliations, impairment assessments, governance monitoring, and the early identification of systemic risks.

L-R: Messrs Rhangani Mbhalati and Herbet Pambayi

External auditors from CHAPU represented by Mr Rhangani Mbhalati and Mr Herbet Pambayi, echoed the call for a year-round approach to audit readiness. Reflecting on UNIVEN’s five-year audit journey, they acknowledged progress in areas such as grant management, fi nancial reporting, subsidiary audits, interim auditing, and combined assurance, while identifying persistent challenges in fi nancial reporting, property, plant, and equipment, reconciliations, documentation, compliance, and the timely submission of information.

The message was clear: audit readiness is not an annual event; it is a daily institutional discipline.

Mr Mxolisi Jeane

The 2025 audit findings, presented by Mr Mxolisi Jeane, included asset-related, liability , and fi ndings in other areas, as well as technical fi nancial statement matters. While several fi ndings were resolved during the audit, the workshop stressed that resolution alone is not enough. The priority must be to strengthen the processes that led to the fi ndings and to prevent their recurrence.

Mr Joseph Mpjane

An independent refl ection by audit lecturer Mr Joseph Mpjane reinforced the need for stronger accountability and monitoring. He recommended that the audit action plan be reviewed monthly, with clear ownership assigned to responsible offi cials and actions structured according to the SMART principle. He also called for greater digitalisation of systems, particularly in asset management, and stronger collaboration among management, Internal Audit, External Audit and the Audit Committee.

Ms Beauty Mutheiwana

The second day of the workshop shifted decisively from reflection to action. Ms Beauty Mutheiwana, Director Supply Chain Management and Expenditure, noted that refl ections from Internal Audit, External Audit, management representatives, and the independent observer had provided important insights into the University’s audit environment and highlighted opportunities to strengthen governance, risk management, internal controls, accounting, and accountability frameworks. Ms Mutheiwana explained that the focus of Day Two would shift from reflection to action, with participants expected to develop practical and sustainable solutions to address the root causes of audit findings and improve the University’s control environment. She emphasised that the success of the workshop would ultimately depend on the commitment to implementing the recommendations and corrective actions arising from the discussions. She further encouraged participants to view audit findings not merely as compliance requirements, but as valuable indicators of weaknesses that could be used to improve systems, procedures, and service delivery while safeguarding the University’s resources and reputation. Ms Mutheiwana called for a culture of accountability, ethical leadership, compliance and continuous improvement, urging participants during the breakaway sessions to focus on root causes, practical interventions, clear accountability mechanisms and realistic implementation timelines. She encouraged a solution-oriented, innovative, and collaborative approach, stressing the importance of working together to strengthen the University’s systems and address the identified challenges.

Participants worked in four groups covering key institutional risk areas: Financial Management and Reporting and Legal Services; Revenue and Financial Aid; Supply Chain Management, Expenditure and Human Resources; and Strategy, Infrastructure, Institutional Research and Planning, and Asset Management. Across the groups, recurring themes emerged: stronger reconciliations, improved documentation, better supervisory review, clearer standard operating procedures, enhanced system controls, digitalisation, staff capacity-building and stronger collaboration across departments.
The Financial Aid group, for example, identified system challenges and insufficiently detailed reconciliations as contributors to several NSFAS and student-account findings and proposed strengthened reconciliation processes, system risk assessments, staff training, and clearer procedures.

The Supply Chain and Expenditure group highlighted the need for stronger monthly reviews, improved contract management, clearer procurement procedures, and enhanced system support. The Financial Reporting and Legal Services group focused on strengthening reviews, reconciliations, financial disclosures, impairment assessments of investments in subsidiaries, grant recognition of investments in subsidiaries, and the completeness of the litigation register.

Meanwhile, the Strategy, Infrastructure, Institutional Research and Planning, and Assets group highlighted the need for formal SOPs, stronger asset management, improved data verification, automation, staff development, and clearer accountability across institutional processes.

Across all four groups, the emphasis was consistent: fi x the root cause, strengthen the system, and prevent the finding from returning.

Summing up the workshop, CFO Ms Mavis Madzhie commended participants for their openness and commitment, noting that many of the identified weaknesses were basic and could be addressed through stronger discipline, accountability, and consistent implementation.

The outcomes of the four breakaway groups will be consolidated into a single institutional audit action plan, which will be monitored monthly by management, with quarterly progress reports submitted to the Executive Management Committee, Finance Committee, Audit Committee, and Council. The workshop has therefore established more than a list of corrective actions. It has created a shared institutional commitment to strengthen financial controls, improve accountability, and embed continuous improvement into the University’s operations.

For UNIVEN, the message emerging from the two-day engagement is both challenging and encouraging: the audit findings are not the destination; they are signposts showing where the University must improve. With stronger systems, collective ownership, disciplined implementation, and continuous monitoring, UNIVEN is positioning itself to turn lessons from the 2025 audit into lasting institutional improvements and to advance confidently towards its strategic ambition of achieving a clean audit by 2030.

Mr Milingoni Nemutshili as he wraps up day one of the workshop

Issued by: Department of Marketing, Branding and Communication University of Venda
Tel: 082 868 2218 / 082 868 1811