Watchdog bares teeth

Parliament’s watchdog committee on public accounts is to haul the accounting officers of municipalities with repeated adverse audit findings before it to account for mismanagement, corruption and other malfeasance.

Officials from the auditor-general’s office briefed the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on the deterioration in audit outcomes. Only 18 of the 257 municipalities assessed received clean audits.

“We have set in motion a process in which, particularly the 17 repeat offender municipalities that have had adverse or disclaimer findings for over three years, t0 be prioritised by the committee for hearings.

“They can come and account for the fact that they are in such a mess,” Mkhuleko Hlengwa, Scopa chairperson, said on the sidelines of the meeting.

“This will require the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs to appear before us to explain the extent of their interventions. We need to understand whether the interventions are producing results.”

Members of parliament were told that the 12 of the municipalities with clean audits were in the Western Cape, two in the Eastern Cape and one each in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga. Not a single municipality in the Free State, Limpopo and the North West provinces achieved a clean audit.

The percentage of municipalities with findings of noncompliance with supply chain management policies increased from 72 to 82. Irregular expenditure was still a multibillion-rand problem and although there was a slight decrease from R29.7 billion to R25.2 billion, Auditor-General (AG) Kimi Makwetu said this picture could change.

Hlengwa said the auditor-general should not hesitate to use his new powers, from amendments to the Public Audit Act, to take action against those who ignore his binding recommendations.

“What we have told the AG today is that they have to get the ball rolling. These powers have now been granted to them so there’s no need to dilly-dally, there’s no need to walk on eggshells,” he said.

In terms of the amendments, a recommendation by the AG that a material irregularity must be rectified would now be binding and a deadline for implementation would be set. If no action was forthcoming, the AG could issue a certificate of debt in the name of the municipal council or manager for the money in question.

Scopa expressed concern at the increase in threats and intimidation during municipal audits. Last year, an official from the AG’s office was shot while investigating the Emfuleni municipality in Vanderbijlpark. The AG had to withdraw staff and conduct the audit remotely.

“This an indication of the extent to which corruption is prevalent,” said Hlengwa. – ANA