Ombud Council AR 2026

PART C: GOVERNANCE

1. Introduction The Board of the Ombud Council oversees adherence to the organisation’s statutory governance objective to manage its affairs in an efficient and effective way and establish and implement appropriate and effective governance systems and processes (section 178 of the FSR Act). Governance is managed through the overarching Board-approved Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) framework. The Board applies the prescripts of the PFMA and is also guided by the principles contained in the King IV and King V Reports on Corporate Governance, as appropriate to the Council’s context. 2. Portfolio Committees The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) reviews the annual financial statements and audit reports of the external auditor for public entities, while the Standing Committee on Finance (SCOF) exercises oversight over the performance of finance sector public entities. The Council is accordingly subject to the oversight of both these forums. The Council presented its Annual Report (2024/25) to the SCOF on 29 October 2025. The SCOF positively acknowledged the Council’s continued fulfilment of its statutory mandate to promote a fair, efficient and independent ombud system; the key role it plays in coordination between the schemes and ensuring the schemes operate according to consistent governance and service standards as well as the significant strides taken towards the establishment of a single financial services ombud model. In its Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report on National Treasury entities’ 2024/25 Annual Reports, the SCOF made several observations and recommendations relating to the Council, the statutory ombud schemes and the financial ombud system reforms. These focus on encouraging ongoing consolidation and accessibility of the ombud system and collaboration with schemes and regulators to strengthen trend monitoring and systemic risk identification and consumer awareness of the ombud system. As such, the SCOF recommendations align strongly with the Council’s strategic priorities, and we will ensure timely feedback to SCOF on its requests. A total of five Parliamentary questions directed to the public entities reporting to the Minister of Finance were received and responded to during the course of the period under review.

The Council also submitted its levy proposals and budget and expenditure estimates for the 2026/27 financial year to Parliament after the required public consultation process, as prescribed by the FSR Act and the Levies Acts. 3. Executive Authority The Minister of Finance appoints the members of the Board of the Council as contemplated in section 180(1) of the FSR Act, as well as its Chief Ombud in terms of section 188 of the FSR Act. The Council has an obligation under the PFMA and the Treasury Regulations to submit a quarterly report after each quarter of the financial year to the Minister of Finance. All such quarterly reports were duly submitted for the financial year under review in July and October 2025; and January and April 2026. Performance was reported against the targets in the Council’s APP, and the required financial performance information was also provided. Similar performance reports were submitted to the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation, in accordance with its electronic submission prescripts. The Council submitted a letter to the Director-General of the National Treasury alerting him to the liquidity risk faced by the entity due to the protracted levy approval process (as described in paragraph 2.1.2 of Part B of this report). A response was received from the Minister of Finance, requesting the Council to implement a cash flow management plan, which we duly implemented. The Board of the Council is required by section 184(d) of the FSR Act (2017) to keep the Minister of Finance informed of trends in complaints dealt with by ombud schemes, and the conduct of financial institutions giving rise to such complaints, and this information was duly provided as part of our quarterly reporting. Section 217(4) of the FSR Act (2017) provides that the Council must provide information to the Minister and the National Treasury on request, or as prescribed in Regulations made for that section. No such requests were received during the year under review and no such Regulations have been prescribed. The Executive Committee members held two check-in meetings with the Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Ashor Sarupen, in the course of the financial year, at his invitation, where the Council provided progress updates on its performance, operations and related matters.

Ombud Council 2025/26 Annual Report

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