Literature on democratic accountability is surging. In recent times, an uncontrollable urge for public financial accountability has been featuring in high-level policy reform debates within and across countries. The early democratisation of the public administration system signalled a complete transformation across all public institutions and state entities. The view, or rather intention, was to achieve the best practices, norms and standards of modern and contemporary democracies. It has to be against this context that the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 deemed it necessary to establish the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG). The OAG's key responsibility is to facilitate and navigate the path of efficient public financial management and accountability. The OAG achieves this through routine auditing of all public institutions and entities. The functions of the OAG are succinctly spelt out in section 188 of the