Bathabile Dlamini can bask in the glory of her ministry`s clean audit report for the 2012-2013 financial year. The auditor general found that the department achieved an overall spending rate of 99.1% for the financial year.

The bulk of the department`s annual budget of more than R112-billion was spent on social assistance. This was good news for a department that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The Democratic Alliance called for the chief executive of the South African Social Security Agency to be fired after the Constitutional Court`s decision to declare a R10-billion deal to provide the payment solution for the distribution of grants invalid. This reflected badly on the department and its performance this year.

There has been criticism from nongovernmental organisations about the department`s failure to ask for public comment on the draft Victim Empowerment Bill. This Bill has now been on the agenda for two years.

The department has been criticised for not using allocated funds the Treasury set aside for the relief of distressed NGOs that were forced to retrench staff, cut down on services or close their doors.