https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Financial|Power|supply-chain
Financial|Power|supply-chain
financial|power|supply chain
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

Municipal managers to be hauled before Parliament to explain repeat adverse audits

Close

Embed Video

Municipal managers to be hauled before Parliament to explain repeat adverse audits

Municipal managers to be hauled before Parliament to explain repeat adverse audits

16th July 2019

By: African News Agency

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Parliament's watchdog on public accounts on Tuesday resolved to haul the accounting officers of municipalities who repeatedly have adverse audit findings made against them before MPs to account for financial mismanagement, corruption and other malfeasance.

Officials from the Auditor General's office briefed the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), outlining the deterioration in audit outcomes which saw only 18 of the 257 municipalities assessed received clean audits.

Advertisement

"We have set in motion now a process where particularly the 17 repeat offender municipalities who have had adverse or disclaimer findings for over three years will be prioritised by the committee for hearings so that they can come and account for the fact that they are in such a mess," said Mkhuleko Hlengwa, Scopa chairperson told African News Agency on the sidelines of the meeting.

"This will require COGTA [department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs] as a department to come and appear before us and explain the extent to which their interventions have gone and we need to understand whether the interventions are producing the necessary results."

Advertisement

MPs were told that 12 of the municipalities with clean audits were in the Western Cape, two in the Eastern Cape and one each in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape, and Mpumalanga. Not a single municipality in the Free State, Limpopo and the North West provinces achieved a clean audit.

The percentage of municipalities which had findings against them for non-compliance with supply chain management policies increased from 72 to 82.

Irregular expenditure remains a multi-billion rand problem, and although a slight decrease was recorded from R29.7-billion to R25.2-billion, Makwetu said this picture could change. 

Hlengwa said the Auditor General should not hesitate when using his new powers, following the adoption of amendments to the Public Audit Act, to take action against those who continue to ignore binding recommendations by the AG.

"What we have told the AG today is that look they have to get the ball rolling. They have been wanting these powers, these powers have now been granted to them so there's no need to dilly dally, there's no need to walk on eggshells," he said.

In terms of the amendments, a recommendation by the AG that a material irregularity be rectified will now be binding and a deadline for implementation will be set. If no action is forthcoming, AG Kimi Makwetu could issue a certificate of debt in the name of the municipal council or manager to repay the amount of money in question. 

MPs expressed concern at the increase in threats and intimidation during municipal audits. Last year, an official from the AG's office was shot while investigating the Emfuleni Municipality in Vanderbijlpark. The AG was forced to withdraw staff and conduct the audit remotely.

"The escalation of threats and intimidation are an indication of the extent to which corruption is prevalent. It is because the auditors are unearthing, uncovering the corrupt, the fraudulent and maladministrative processes which are at play in municipalities and so that is why they are at the receiving end of the intimidation," said Hlengwa.

"We are expecting the law enforcement agencies and intelligence sector to be able to identify these things. Early detection is very important so we can protect auditors, auditing is a risky job and of course we are not ignorant to the fact that political killings generally arise out of the contestation of power as far as tender processes are concerned."

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options
Free daily email newsletter Register Now