Since the last reporting period, South Africa has taken proactive steps to encourage and enforce training and/or re-training for government officials. The National Treasury (NT) and Auditor-General (AG) have intensified their efforts to build sound financial management capacity in the public sector and concurrently improve audit outcomes in the three spheres of governments. To maintain the credibility of the South African government in promoting sound public financial management across the national, provincial and municipal departments, PALAMA has introduced courses which cover public expenditure management skills. These include training courses on Standard Charts of Accounts (SCOA) and Economic Reporting Formats (ERF) for Practitioners. This particular course is aimed at practitioners in the national and provincial governments. The typical target audience is financial management staff, typically in the Chief Financial Officer’s office (payment, receipt, banking, taxation, debt and suspense accounts etc.), Supply Chain Management (SCM) officials (demand, acquisition, logistics, disposal), Asset management officials, system controllers, budget officials (preparation of departmental budgets) as reflected in the table below. In terms of institutionalisation of the capacity to manage public expenditure and improve audit outcomes, PALAMA, as the public service institution for leadership development, has facilitated training for public service employees in both the national and provincial departments as reflected in the table below. Training and Skills Development Number Course name Number of officials trained in both national and provincial departments. 1. Management and others 2. Induction 25 167 3. Leadership 10 628 Administration (good governance, ethics and Anti corruption 4 773 (SCOA, SCM, 5 874 Source: PALAMA Annual Report, 2012. In 2012, the academy introduced a Compulsory Induction Programme in the public service which seeks to instil among public servants the knowledge and understanding of the intrinsic values and building blocks of a democratic state emanating from the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and other related legislation. The CIP replaces the Massified Induction Programme, which targeted all newly appointed public servants before completion of their terms of probation. The programme included Public Expenditure Management and Finance as important components. The PALAMA has further co-hosted the conference on CAPAM, which examined the role of leadership and management practices at all levels of government, fostering a culture of 50