Auditor-General Thembekile Makwetu recently said the City of Ekurhuleni is one of the 53 municipalities in the country that has showed consistent improvement in the audit outcomes.
Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, Paul Mashatile, attributed the success – recorded from the 2011/12 financial year to the 2014/15 financial year – to strong and capable institutions that are managed and governed efficiently.
Ekurhuleni has been basking in the glory after achieving four successive unqualified reports and two clean audits, as well as receiving a prime credit rating upgrade to Aaa.za, on a national scale from the Moody’s rating agency.
The metro’s city manager, Khaya Ngema, believes these achievements are not a point of arrival, however, and said that the city will pay special attention to wasteful expenditure.
Ngema’s commitment reflects the concern of the Auditor-General, who noted an increase in the irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
“Now that we have achieved the clean audit status, we are concerned about the issue of wasteful and fruitless spending,” said Ngema.
“While we have made great gains in this area over the years, we are prepared to do more to change the status quo.”
Ngema explained that Ekurhuleni’s political and administrative will to deal with the Auditor-General’s concerns was demonstrated when the city reduced wasteful expenditure from R20.8-million in the 2013/14 financial year to R1.8-m in the last financial year.
The city has also reduced its irregular spending from R235-m to R68-m in the last financial year, reducing it by R187-m.
Ngema said that the dawn of a new era in the city’s finances can be attributed to, amongst others, improved quality of management in the different departments of the metro, not just on governance and risk, but more crucially, in operations and project management.
