Bhisho mulls over poor audit report for Eastern Cape municipalities

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Eastern Cape premier Noxolo Kiviet has called for tough action on municipal officials following a damning report by the auditor-general on Eastern Cape municipalities.

Speaking at a media briefing in East London on Tuesday, Kiviet saids those involved in hindering the performance of municipalities will face serious consequences.

She warned that they will be charged, tried and convicted, adding that irregular expenditure of some R1.4b will be investigated.

Kiviet says municipal officials will be "capacitated" to enable better audit outcomes, adding that a clean up campaign will follow to show that government means business.

Provincial auditor general Singa Ngqwala revealed that 13 Eastern Cape municipalities received unqualified audits but with findings, 13 were qualified, while two received adverse opinions and 17 received audit disclaimers.

Ngqwala cited the lack of political will, the lack of consequences for poor performance, and failure to appoint adequately skilled and competent individuals as the main reason for the poor audit opinions.

Eastern Cape Local Government MEC, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, said "when we are given billions to disperse I think it is always prudent that we spend the public purse within the fiscal environment as well as the regime that have been approved by Treasury using the municipal finance management act, treasure regulations and proper financial systems of municipalities. There must be credibility in what we do".

On Monday, auditor-general, Terence Nombembe, revealed that only five percent of the country's municipalities obtained clean audit reports in the financial year 2011/2012.

None of the municipalities in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Northern Cape, and North West received clean audit reports.

Trade union federation Cosatu has meanwhile called for an urgent national debate on what it termed "a disaster."

Cosatu spokesperson, Patrick Craven, says Nombembe's report helps to explain why there are "so many angry and often violent service-delivery protests in our poorest communities."

"There is now clear evidence that money which had been budgeted for schools, houses, clinics, running water, sewers and roads was simply not being used for its intended purpose; communities in many cases have quite legitimate grievances," he said.

Craven said the Auditor-General had identified a key reason for these problems as the "lack of consequences for poor performance and transgression".

"In plain language that simply means that those responsible are getting away with it. No-one is being held to account for this national catastrophe," he said.