auditee defaults on the payment of audit fees, the Auditor-General must promptly notify National Treasury and, when applicable, notify the relevant provincial Treasury. National Treasury or the relevant provincial Treasury, as may be appropriate, may, after consulting the Auditor- General, direct that audit fees recoverable from an auditee which is not a national or provincial department be defrayed from a vote on the national Budget or a provincial budget identified by the relevant Treasury. If the audit fee exceeds 1% of the total current and capital expenditure of such auditee for the relevant financial year, such excess must be defrayed from National Treasury's vote, provided that National Treasury is of the view that the auditee has financial difficulty to settle the costs. This excludes national and provincial departments. The problem was that it was difficult to predict what these claims would be to budget properly for them. Historically, there has always been a shortfall between the amounts due and the funds appropriated for this by National Treasury.