Warning for mayors

Poorly performing South African municipalities that perennially get disclaimers from the auditor-general should face harsh consequences, Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Andries Nel says.

“What concerns us very deeply is that even though the number of municipalities getting disclaimers has decreased dramatically from 104 to 25, within those 25 municipalities getting disclaimers there is a group of about 21 or slightly more that are persistent.

“They have had disclaimers for more than five years in a row,” Nel said at a media briefing with Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu in Pretoria yesterday.

“For us as a department, together with our partners Salga (SA Local Government Association) and National Treasury, those are the municipalities we really want to hone in on.

“In the absence of leadership and results, there must be consequences.”

Nel said mayors at numerous Mpumalanga municipalities had already been axed for nonperformance.

Also of great concern was the increase in irregular expenditure, especially linked to supply chain management. “We will continue working very closely with the National Treasury, our provincial treasuries and Salga to address that. We are confident the introduction of the municipal standard chart of accounts … in promoting centralised procurement will go quite some way to address that.

“The third area that concerns us greatly is the financial health of municipalities – both the amounts owed to municipalities and the amounts owed by them, especially to bulk service providers. We are working to increase the capacity of municipalities to generate revenue. We are also working with them, with the water boards and Eskom, to resolve the issue of outstanding amounts.”

The 2015-16 local government audit report released yesterday showed audit opinions on financial statements improved from 60% to 62% unqualified opinions. Disclaimed and adverse opinions decreased from 13 to 10%. – ANA