REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT AUDITOR TO THE BOARD FOR

SHERIFFS IN TERMS OF SECTION 23(2) OF THE SHERIFFS ACT, 1986

(ACT No. 90 OF 1986)

Report of the independent auditors to the Board for Sheriffs

We have audited the records of …………………………………………………...................................................(name of sheriff) of the …………………………...................................................(court and full address of office) relating to trust moneys as contemplated by section 22 of the Act for the financial year ended…, and have performed certain procedures in order to report on items required by the Board for Sheriffs. The accounting records are the responsibility of the sheriff. Our responsibility is to report on compliance with sections 22 and 23(1)(a) of the Act and on the results of the agreed procedures.

We conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. These standards require that we plan and perform the audit so as to obtain reasonable assurance that the sheriff has complied with sections 22 and 23(1)(a) of the Act.

Our audit included an evaluation of the effectiveness of the accounting controls, and an examination, on a test basis, of the evidence in support of the amounts and disclosures included in the accounting records relating to trust moneys, the audit also included an evaluation of the appropriateness of the overall presentation of accounting records relating to trust moneys. We consider that in the circumstances our audit procedures qualify us to express the opinion presented below.

In our opinion …………………………..(name of sheriff) complied with sections 22 and 23(1)(a) of the Act during the year.

Our agreed procedures and findings are summarised as follows:

We examined the accounting records of the sheriff on ..........................19....., being the financial year end, and on ...............19........, being one other month end during that year and selected by us at random. We report that the total amount standing to the credit of the trust account and any savings or other interest-bearing account kept by the sheriff in terms of section 22(1) and (2) of the Act, together with any trust moneys which, according to the sheriff’s accounting records, were held as cash on hand, were sufficient to cover the trust balance on these dates. We have satisfied ourselves that the cash on hand was deposited in the sheriff’s trust account on the first banking day after these dates.

We investigated the circumstances under which negotiable instruments which were deposited into the sheriff’s trust account up to and inclusive of the dates referred to above were not subsequently honoured, and report that these circumstances are satisfactory.

We tested the system employed to transfer amounts (including interest earned) from such sheriff’s trust account to his business account and report that the system ensures that whenever any such transfer is made, the balance remaining to the credit of such trust account and any savings or other interest-bearing account referred to in section 22(2) of the Act, together with any trust moneys held as cash on hand, amounts to not less than the trust balances.

We extracted the following information from the records:

Interest in the amount of R.............................. was earned during the financial year on moneys deposited in terms of section 22(1) of the Act in a trust account and on moneys invested in terms of section 22(2) of the Act in any savings or other interest-bearing account, which interest was dealt with as follows:

Total amount of interest earned:                                R.........................

Interest paid over to the Fidelity Fund for Sheriffs                 R.........................

Interest earned and accumulated, but not yet paid over

to the said Fidelity Fund:                                        R.........................

Auditor CA (SA)………………………………………………………………………….

Address………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Date