Cape Town – Auditor General Kimi Makwetu says the number of municipalities and municipal entities with clean audits have increased notably.
Makwetu released the audit outcomes for the 2013/14 financial year that ended on 30 June 2014, in Cape Town, earlier on Tuesday.
The Auditor General said the total number of municipalities and municipal entities with clean audits went up from 30 in the 2012/13 financial year to 58 in 2013/14, while there were only seven in 2007/08.
This represents 40 (14%) of the 268 municipalities and 18 (32%) of the 57 municipal entities audited during the financial year under review.
“This year’s audit outcomes show a noticeable increase in the number of municipalities and municipal entities that received financially unqualified audit opinions with no findings [clean audits].
“This is certainly a laudable step towards wholesale good governance for our public sector,” he said.
The continuing improvement in municipal audit outcomes, he said, is largely due to the political and administrative leadership starting to set the right tone and leading by example in ensuring that the basics of good governance are in place and implemented rigorously.
“This has been our message on good administration in the public sector over the past few years,” he said.
Makwetu attributed the improvement to political and administrative leadership that is starting to set the right tone and leading by example in ensuring that the basics of good governance are in place and implemented rigorously.
Municipalities and entities that had obtained clean audits or maintained their previous year’s clean audits had “gone back to the basics of clean governance”.
The Auditor General’s statement comes on the back of government’s Back to Basics Strategy, which was adopted by municipalities to ensure that basic services such as water, refuse and sanitation are delivered and that potholes are fixed, amongst other things.
Cooporative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan launched the Back to Basics Strategy in September 2014.
The Auditor-General said in his consolidated report that this strategy supports and complements the achievement of the outcomes of the Medium Term Strategic Framework.
Makwetu said some of the practices municipalities adopted included introducing basic accounting and daily control disciplines; enforcing compliance with all legislation; employing and retaining staff in accounting and financial management positions with the required level of technical competence and experience and allowing the chief financial officer to be in charge of the financial administration function.
Four years of steady improvement
While 17% of all municipalities and municipal entities received clean audits in 2013/ 14, 9% had received the same outcome in 2012/ 13, and 5% in 2011/ 12.
A total of 41% of all auditees received unqualified audits with findings in the year under review, compared to 40% in 2012/ 13, 43% in 2011/ 12 and 35% in 2007/ 08.
The results showed that 22% were qualified with audits in the year under review, compared to 28% in 2012/ 13, 22% in 2011/ 12 and 23% in 2007/ 08.
A total of 16% of municipalities and municipal entities obtained disclaimers with findings. – SAnews.gov.za
