Two Eastern Cape municipalities have earned a clean bill of accounting health for the first time.
This means they produced statements for the auditor-general (AG) that in all respects accurately reflected the financial state of the municipality with no queries.
The good news continues.
Cacadu district municipality and Senqu municipality led an all-round improvement in the accounting performance of provincial municipalities and their entities in the 2013-14 fiscal year, which ended in June.
Senqu has had a stormy recent history, being the centre of major community unrest for months, which led to municipal and government services coming to a standstill in Sterkspruit.
The unrest in the town, which has more than 130000 residents, focused on demands for the town to have its own standalone municipality.
They were demanding to break away from Senqu, which encompasses Lady Grey, Barkly East, Sterkspruit, Rhodes, Rossouw and Herschel.
Senqu mayor Nozibele Mtyali attributed the audit outcome to political and administrative stability within the municipality.
“Every person within the institution has been striving for this clean audit for almost five years now,” Mtyali said.
She also attributed the success to the municipal plans, which have received buy-in from communities.
The municipality has been receiving an unqualified audit opinion for the past five years, which means there were some minor queries.
Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) spokesman Mamnkeli Ngam said the audit outcomes are still to be presented to various municipal councils for adoption. “Municipalities with public entities are still consolidating their reports. Cogta EC is therefore unable to comment at this stage.”
This comes shortly after Cogta Minister Pravin Gordhan instructed his provincial counterpart, MEC Fikile Xasa, to ensure all chief financial officers and municipal managers at local government had adequate qualifications.
Gordhan said 170 financial officers in 278 municipalities were unqualified for their jobs.
The municipalities performed dismally in the 2012-13 audit reports, with seven receiving disclaimer audit opinions.
Not one of the municipalities in the province received a clean audit, but the number of institutions that received unqualified audits increased from nine to 12.
Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu revealed a month ago that a majority of Eastern Cape municipalities were run by accounting officers who did not meet the state’s minimum requirements.
In his report, Makwetu revealed that 13 municipal managers, 17 supply chain managers and 17 chief financial officers in the province did not meet minimum competency levels issued by the national Treasury on June 15, 2007.
Makwetu also revealed that irregular expenditure increased significantly – from R2.2-billion in the 2011-12 financial year to R3.3-billion during the year under review.
Almost all of this – about R3.2-billion – was incurred due to non-compliance with supply chain management legislation and other applicable regulations. — mphumziz@dispatch.co.za
Two EC municipalities earn clean audits
This means they produced statements for the auditor-general (AG) that in all respects accurately reflected the financial state of the municipality with no queries.
The good news continues.
Cacadu district municipality and Senqu municipality led an all-round improvement in the accounting performance of provincial municipalities and their entities in the 2013-14 fiscal year, which ended in June.
Senqu has had a stormy recent history, being the centre of major community unrest for months, which led to municipal and government services coming to a standstill in Sterkspruit.
The unrest in the town, which has more than 130000 residents, focused on demands for the town to have its own standalone municipality.
They were demanding to break away from Senqu, which encompasses Lady Grey, Barkly East, Sterkspruit, Rhodes, Rossouw and Herschel.
Senqu mayor Nozibele Mtyali attributed the audit outcome to political and administrative stability within the municipality.
“Every person within the institution has been striving for this clean audit for almost five years now,” Mtyali said.
She also attributed the success to the municipal plans, which have received buy-in from communities.
The municipality has been receiving an unqualified audit opinion for the past five years, which means there were some minor queries.
Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) spokesman Mamnkeli Ngam said the audit outcomes are still to be presented to various municipal councils for adoption. “Municipalities with public entities are still consolidating their reports. Cogta EC is therefore unable to comment at this stage.”
This comes shortly after Cogta Minister Pravin Gordhan instructed his provincial counterpart, MEC Fikile Xasa, to ensure all chief financial officers and municipal managers at local government had adequate qualifications.
Gordhan said 170 financial officers in 278 municipalities were unqualified for their jobs.
The municipalities performed dismally in the 2012-13 audit reports, with seven receiving disclaimer audit opinions.
Not one of the municipalities in the province received a clean audit, but the number of institutions that received unqualified audits increased from nine to 12.
Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu revealed a month ago that a majority of Eastern Cape municipalities were run by accounting officers who did not meet the state’s minimum requirements.
In his report, Makwetu revealed that 13 municipal managers, 17 supply chain managers and 17 chief financial officers in the province did not meet minimum competency levels issued by the national Treasury on June 15, 2007.
Makwetu also revealed that irregular expenditure increased significantly – from R2.2-billion in the 2011-12 financial year to R3.3-billion during the year under review.
Almost all of this – about R3.2-billion – was incurred due to non-compliance with supply chain management legislation and other applicable regulations. — mphumziz@dispatch.co.za
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