Fewer municipalities receiving clean audits
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has revealed the number of municipalities that received clean audits decreased in 2021/2022 from 41 to 38.
Maluleke on Wednesday delivered the local government audit outcomes of the country's 257 municipalities in Parliament.
"We have 38 clean audits this year. The next category deals with 104 unqualified on financial statements but problems on performance and compliance. This zone is a potentially dangerous one. No less than 16 auditees moved backwards into the qualified space and some into adverse this year.
"Seventy-eight are those with qualified audit opinions in that their financial statements are not credible to be relied upon for key decision-making during the course of the year and beyond.
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"Six adverse, one of the metro in fact sits with and audit of opinion - the City of Tshwane. We have got 15 disclaimers as things stand because there are a number of late submissions."
Maluleke said on the brighter side there were also fewer municipalities with disclaimed audit opinions.
"There are a number of leaders in local government and also in provincial government that are heeding our call to deal decisively with disclaimers.
"There have been at least nine previous disclaimers that have moved out of that space. There are 16 outstanding audits at the end of the year. These were audits that we were unable to complete before we published this report. Much of it is due to late submission of financial statements."
