Lungile Ntimba
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has called for urgent action and political leadership, as municipalities remain beset by instability and governance challenges two years into their administration.
On Tuesday Maluleke was tabling her report and said there has been little improvement on the audit outcomes since the end of the previous administration’s term.
“Two years into the administrative term, some metros still have instability in their councils and struggle to take the lead in ensuring service delivery to all their residents in a financially responsible manner” Maluleke said.
The audits revealed that only 34 of the country’s 257 municipalities have obtained clean audits with Western Cape having a majority of 58.8%.
While 45 municipalities have improved their audit outcomes since 2020-21, 36 have regressed.
77 of the 110 municipalities received an unqualified audit opinion since the previous administration.
Maluleke said metros are struggling with controls over compliance on contracts management and service delivery information.
“75% of metros are unable to produce reliable service delivery reports,” Maluleke said, adding that those are the metros that should hire the type of skills to acquire information systems that will help them collect data to compile credible financial statements and performance reports.
She urged the newly-elected representatives to instil a culture of performance, transparency and institutional integrity, and to be accountable to the communities they serve.
“Our call was for all role players in the accountability ecosystem to promote a culture of accountability that will transform local government and improve service delivery” Maluleke said.
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