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Honourable Speaker in terms of Rule 82 (1) of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature Standing Rules, Version 5, Revision 3; I wish to make a Ministerial Statement in relation to Gauteng’s MFMA 2012/13 audit outcomes as released by the Auditor General in Pretoria yesterday.

Firstly I would like to welcome the significant improvement in this financial year’s audit outcomes compared to the previous year.   We note that of the 37 auditees three achieved clean audits, 32 achieved unqualified audits and there was a decline from 6 to only two qualified audits in the financial year under review. 

We also welcome the fact that the Auditor General noted that there was “a significant reduction in irregular expenditure” as well as positive decline in unauthorised and fruitless and wasteful expenditure in municipalities across the province.

In particular we want to welcome the unqualified audit opinion received by the Johannesburg Metro for the first time since the new billing system was introduced during the 2009/10 financial year.  We also congratulate the Johannesburg Social Housing Company and the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market for maintaining their so called “clean” audit status.

Congratulations must also go to the Sedibeng District Municipality for progressing from an unqualified audit last year to a clean audit this year.

These improved audit outcomes are significant because local government is the sphere closest to our people and often their first contact point with government.  Improved accountability in public expenditure must translate into better service delivery on the ground.

Honourable members we all know that building solid institutions and enhancing transparency through robust accounting practices, is the only long term guarantee against the scourge of corruption. It is therefore important that this House joins in recognising the significant political and administrative leadership commitment that has led to these improvements.

Having said this, we remain concerned about the qualified audits in Randfontein and Westonaria and the impact that weaknesses in financial management have on service delivery to our people in these areas.

As the Gauteng Provincial Treasury we will continue to work with our sister department of Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs to strengthen financial management and leadership, accounting practices and revenue collection in these two municipalities.

Together with Cogta we will also work harder to support all district and local municipalities to improve revenue collection, supply chain management and internal audit functions so that in future years we can look forward to even better MFMA outcomes in Gauteng.