National Assembly:   22nd September 2009

Statement by the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on achieving clean audits of all municipalities by 2014
 

It is with great disappointment that five years later after Project Consolidate, aimed at assisting municipalities to effect their basic functions, was launched there are still concerns about many Municipalities' ability to achieve clean audits.

With the lack of capacity a key contributing factor in local government's underperformance, capacity building programmes are essential. They include a thorough understanding of the legal and policy requirements of good governance.

It is unrealistic to expect that all municipalities, particularly in rural areas, have clean audits while the necessary skills levels and expertise are not always there or to effect local economic development while the growth in the national economy is slow and urban based.

A recent report by the Office of the Auditor-General has revealed that many municipality's financial books are in total disarray to such an extent that some municipal officials did not have accounting principles.

Like heads of the various departments, municipalities need to be compelled by the Public Accounts Committee to have clean audits so that this is not left to the discretion of the council.