NELSPRUIT – As part of Operation Clean Audit, all municipal managers in Mpumalanga agreed to be released from duty with immediate effect should they receive disclaimers on their audited reports next year.
According to the premier’s office, each of the municipal managers and acting ones in all 21 local and district municipalities submitted the signed letters on Wednesday. “The managers committed themselves that they would improve their work and in the event that they got disclaimers, they would voluntarily allow the authorities to release them from duty with immediate effect,” said Mr Zibonele Mncwango, spokesman for the premier.
A disclaimer was issued when the auditor couldn’t form an opinion on financial statements, such as in cases where public funds were spent but insufficient records exists as to where the money went. “It means that although public funds had been utilised, services were not delivered to the people,” said Mncwango. The agreement letters were submitted during a special coordinating forum hosted by the premier, Mr David Mabuza in the city last week.
Representatives from the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) also attended. This followed a meeting between Mabuza and the minister of Cogta, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli at the beginning of September. The premier asked Tsenoli for his department’s dedicated support to the municipalities of Mpumalanga and he undertook for his department to maximise its support of them.
The ultimate goal of Operation Clean Audit, a government initiative, is for all 283 municipalities and provincial departments within the nine provinces to achieve clean audits on their annual financial statements at the end of this financial year. Mncwango explained that the letters would be dated by the authorities only once a municipal manager received a disclaimer.
The DA called the move a publicity stunt, since these official were appointed by municipal councils and were therefore accountable to them. “Legislation demands that municipal managers enter into performance agreements with the local council on commencement of employment,” said Mr Anthony Benadie, the party’s provincial leader.
“By ‘forcing’ them to sign these commitment letters, which can be regarded as performance agreements, the premier violates municipal legislation governing the relationship between municipal managers and councils, and the division between local and provincial spheres of government.”
