The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has called on municipalities that received poor audit outcomes to turn around their financial management and governance.
This follows the adverse findings of the Auditor General, Tsakane Maluleke, in her consolidated general report on the local government audit outcomes for the financial year of 2021/2022.
SALGA Acting CEO Mthobeli Kolisa elaborates, “There is a way out of this cycle, but we also do recognise that the audit outcomes of 2021/2022 represented a stagnation in terms of financial management and governance. We also take into account that this was a year of transition. We had local government elections on the 1st of November 2021 – we think that there’s something to build on. 55% of the municipalities did produce credible financial statements, which represented two-thirds of the overall local government budget. To that extent, we think that we have a base to work on. If our municipalities cannot regress from where we are and build on that, there is hope.”
Maluleke found that only 38 municipalities out of 25 achieved clean audits, racked up R4.74 billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and R25 billion in unauthorised expenditure.
VIDEO | Tsakani Maluleke unpacks the latest Auditor General report on municipalities:
