Platteland councils raise their game
IMPROVING the skills, training and supporting municipality staff on the platteland was how the Western Cape government is instilling a “culture of good governance”, said Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell.
This was after Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu’s announcement that 24 out of the 30 municipalities in the Western Cape received clean audits under the Municipal Finance Management Act for the 2015/16 financial year. Beaufort West, Cederberg, Laingsburg and Prince Albert municipalities all received unqualified opinions that could indicate that findings had been “raised on either reporting on predetermined objectives or non-compliance with legislation, or both”.
Oudtshoorn received a qualified audit opinion which indicates that the “financial statements contain material misstatements in specific amounts, or there is insufficient evidence to conclude that specific amounts included are not materially misstated”.
Kannaland received an adverse audit opinion, which indicates that the statements “contain material misstatements that are not confined to specific amounts” or that there was insufficient evidence that the amounts included were accurate.
Yesterday, the Western Province municipal managers were holding a routine meeting on local governance and on improving efficiency of service delivery to residents.
Acting municipal manager for Beaufort West Kosie Haarhoff, who was seconded from the provincial government two weeks ago, said challenge in the platteland areas was the issue of “capacity”.
“On the province’s side we are addressing it by sending staff to these areas and by appointing more people to do the work,” said Haarhoff.
He said the Beaufort West municipality faced many challenges which they had begun to address.
Reginald Smith, Oudtshoorn’s director of corporate services and the acting municipal manager, said the municipality had been placed under administration two years ago when it received an adverse audit. It improved this year.
Bredell said two years ago, there were only 18 out of 30 clean audits and in 2009 there were no clean audits in the province.
“Given the legacies we inherited, there are always areas where improvements are needed, but we believe our municipalities provide their communities with the best services possible within the budgets,” he said.