Audit outcomes 'not all bad' says SA Local Government Association
The Auditor-General's 2022/23 audit outcomes report made for grim reading when presented to Parliament on Tuesday.
audit
Clement Manyathela is joined by Lance Joel, Chief of Operations at South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
Listen below
Corruption, mismanagement and lack of service delivery continue to be a big problem for the majority of the country’s municipalities.
The Auditor-General's 2022/23 audit outcomes report made for grim reading when presented to Parliament on Tuesday.
The results paint a picture of the country's 257 municipalities - with problems of material irregularities, financial irregularities and wasteful expenditure.
Only the City of Cape Town (for the second year in a row) received a clean audit.
But Joel says it's not all bad news and there are some positives.
"The first one is the ability to develop financial statements...when we compare this audit outcome to the previous year, there is certainly an increase in the municipality being able to do the basic things, the development of financial statements."
Lance Joel, Chief of Operations - SALGA
"The second positive is ...the number of disclaimed municipalities has also reduced."
Lance Joel, Chief of Operations - SALGA
According to the Auditor-General's website, a disclaimed audit opinion means, 'the municipality could not provide evidence for most of the information in its financial statements...'
"There is an underlying tone of some improvement when you look at individual municipalities."
Lance Joel, Chief of Operations - SALGA
During Tuesday's presentation, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke said the majority of municipalities that had received unqualified audits made little effort to move out of this category.
ALSO READ: Only Cape Town has a clean audit. How do we start fixing South Africa's failing metros?
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