‘No improvement’ in municipal audit results – AG
The country's
municipalities are not making much headway in turning out clean audits.
This was revealed in the last municipal audit results released by auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke on Wednesday.
"What we see looking at the audit outcomes is that there is no improvement in the status of transparency, accountability, performance or integrity of local government. Throughout the tenure of the fourth administration of local government, which started following the 2016 elections and left the system following the 2021 elections.
“We've not seen an improvement. If you compare from five years ago, there were 33 clean audits this time around there are 41 clean audits. So not much movement in the right direction.”
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Maluleke says 27 municipalities maintained their clean audit status, 14 achieved it for the first time and six lost their clean audit status.
"The culture of not submitting financials or even of submitting financials late will be a flouting of the law. That culture is beginning to set in again, five years ago 90% of municipalities will submit their financials on time for an audit now we are sitting at 82% that do so on time.
“There is a number of provinces where this is a struggle.”
