The IFP has noted the release of the municpal audit outcomes by the Auditor-General, and we congratulate those that have done well and urge them to keep on the positive tracjectory.
IFP Spokesperson on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mkhuleko Hlengwa MP said “Whilst there have notable improvements in certain areas regarding the municipal audit outcomes but what remains is that a lot more work must be done to salvage the financial management capacity in municpalities. The fact that the year under review registered unauthorised expenditure of R11 billion, up from 8 billion in the previous. It is evident that internal audit and internal controls are weak if not existent in municipalities and there is a persisitent disregard for the MFMA and relevant National Treasury Regulations.”
Hlengwa further added that “The IFP will strongly push for the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) to investigate and hold hearings with the responsible accounting officers into the financial health of those municipalities that are chronic failures by always receiving negative audit outcomes. We must now begin a process whereby we will hold people accountable. People must be fit for purpose, the taxpayer cannot afford to pay warm bodies who twiddle their thumbs and are only good at being corrupt or incompetent.”
The Minister of Cogta has recently launched the Back-To-Basics Programs and “it is now evident that this program is receiving a lot of backlash and is being met with resistance. The Department must assert its authority and ensure that municipalities do their work in keeping with prescribed regulations otherwise the Back-To-Basics Program will become a monumental failure like all previous interventions of this kind.”
For further information please contact:
Mkhuleko Hlengwa MP
IFP Spokesperson on COGTA
076 521 3221