Gauteng Finance and Economic Development MEC Lebogang Maile is concerned about increasing non-compliance with legislation among the province’s municipalities. Picture: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers
GAUTENG Finance and Economic Development MEC Lebogang Maile has expressed concerns with the level of compliance with legislation by the province’s 11 municipalities and their entities.
Maile on Tuesday outlined the state of finances in municipalities following the tabling of Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s audit reports for the 2023/24 financial year in councils across the province.
He noted that the number of auditees with non-compliances decreased from 92% (or 22 incidents) in the previous financial year to 79% (19) in 2023/24.
”Non-compliance remains an area of concern in local government as there is still a high number of non-compliance instances,” Maile said.
Among the key areas of non-compliance are material misstatements or limitations in the submitted annual financial statements (12 incidents), unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure (16), expenditure management (15), consequence management (seven) and procurement management (10).
Municipal public accounts committees (MPACs) are expected to provide oversight reports on the exact figures of the unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
Maile indicated that in the previous financial years, disciplinary boards were established to deal with cases of financial misconduct.
”We reiterate the call we made in our previous communication of the 2022/23 audit outcomes that the speakers of councils, MPACs, and other council committees must instil a culture of good governance by promptly investigating instances of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure,” he said, adding that municipalities must also ensure that disciplinary boards function as intended.
Maile noted that the quality of the published annual financial statements improved even though there were a number of qualifications and material adjustments made.
”A total of 12 (50%) of auditees submitted annual financial statements that are free from material misstatements. The improvement is due to the management implementing the recommendations from the previous year, specifically with regards to improving review controls,” he said.
Overall, eight of the province’s 11 municipalities received unqualified opinions, two of which were without findings, while most maintained the same outcomes as in the 2022/23 financial year, with three improving their outcomes.
Maile said no municipality in Gauteng saw a regression and commended the Midvaal Local Municipality’s leadership and administration for sustaining its clean audit for 11 consecutive years.
Audit opinions for the City of Joburg, Ekurhuleni Metro, Rand West City Local Municipality, Sedibeng District Municipality, and Lesedi Local Municipality are unchanged, which is unqualified with findings.
The West Rand district, Merafong, and Mogale City local municipalities improved their audit outcomes from unqualified with findings to unqualified with no findings, a disclaimer to a qualified opinion, and qualified to unqualified with findings, respectively.
The City of Tshwane and eMfuleni Local Municipality’s audit outcomes remained unchanged from the 2022/23 financial year, with both being qualified, which Maile stated was an indication of their inability to implement Maluleke’s recommendations.
”While this is concerning, the municipalities, the Gauteng provincial Treasury, Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the SA Local Government Association are hard at work reviewing the particular challenges that the two municipalities are confronted with,” he added.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za
Related Topics: