38 municipalities in SA receives clean audits - Auditor-General

Thirty-eight out of South Africa’s 257 municipalities received a clean audit.

This was revealed by the Auditor-General of South Africa, Tsakani Maluleke, who presented the Local Government audit outcomes for 2021/22 financial year.

PICTURE: Auditor-General SA

She further told the Standing Committee that 104 have credible financial statements, 78 received a qualified audit, six received adverse findings, 15 have disclaimers and 16 have outstanding audit outcomes due to late submission of financial statements.

‘’There is no improvement to address the deterioration in municipalities’ internal financial controls. The accountability of local government need to be active to institutionalise key control instruments consistently over time,’’ said Tsakani Maluleke, Auditor-General of South Africa.

 “Local Government’s poor implementation of its delivery mandate relates directly to poor financial management and planning. The absence of these instruments often leads to an unfunded budget and unauthorised expenditure,’’ she added.

The AG blamed local government’s poor financial and performance management on a lack of the requisite skills, which contributes to poor record keeping and audit outcome controls and compliances.

The best-run municipality in the country is the West Coast District Municipality, which has achieved a clean audit for 12 consecutive years

Meanwhile, Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, received the City’s clean audit award for the 2021/22 financial year from the Auditor General (AG) at a ceremony in Saldanha on Friday.

Hill-Lewis said the City is currently driving an ongoing culture change campaign inside the City administration to cut red tape.

Cape Town has received unqualified audits every year since 2006.

Done By: Esobusi Mkangelwa