The challenge of meeting strategic outcomes with limited resources has forced governments to outsource certain functions and activities to third parties. With the introduction of the New Public Management to public administration world-wide, much emphasis was placed on privatisation. This drive towards privatisation has led to an increase in the outsourcing of activities and is sometimes integrated with the public private partnerships projects of government departments. Outsourcing of government functions has also led to various irregularities in the South African public sector and the prescribed procurement policies have not been implemented appropriately. Negative audit outcomes on expenditure relating to outsourced activities raise various questions as to what the volume, extent and nature of outsourcing activities in government departments are. The effectiveness of the control measures of these expenditures is also under a magnif