The financial health of the municipalities in Mpumalanga deteriorates each year, the Auditor-General (AG) announced last week.

Bomkazi Bhobho, AG business executive responsible for the province, announced the most recent audit outcomes last Wednesday.

In local municipalities, irregular expenditure increased from R1,47 billion to R1,99 billion.

The City of Mbombela (CMLM) and Bushbuckridge local municipalities were  the highest contributors, CMLM with R493 million and Bushbuckridge with R348 million. Third was Mkhondo with R236 million.

The audit outcomes state that irregular expenditures continue to spiral upwards. This local government audit outcomes include 20 municipalities.

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Bhobho said 99 per cent of the irregular expenditure in 2016/17 resulted from instances of non-compliance with supply chain management regulations.

“A total of 70 per cent of the irregular expenditure for the current year is related to multi-year contracts which were awarded irregularly in the previous year.”

Management’s slow response is attributed to the lack of accountability.

Bhobho said despite the efforts in engaging with the municipal managers and mayors with regard to the processes to take when dealing with irregular expenditure, they were slow in investigations.

“In 2016/17 municipalities wrote off irregular expenditure amounting to only R331 million and this indicates that investigations either are not taking place or are not rigorous enough to resolve the significant balance. Our recommendations did not receive the necessary attention at most municipalities,” she explained.

With all that said, Bhobho noted that the audit results of Mpumalanga reports show an improvement when compared to the previous year’s. She also said that local government accountability failures result in munici-palities not achieving their objectives and have a negative impact on the lives of citizens.

“The financial health of the municipalities in the province keeps deteriorating each year. There are also shortcomings in the development and maintenance of infrastructure.”
Slow response by management and political leaders, instability, vacancies, competencies and inadequate consequences were said to be the reasons for the accountability failures.

Thaba Chweu Local Municipality is the only one that has a disclaimer with findings.
“In the status outcome, 13 municipalities managed to obtain unqualified audit opinions. Only Ehlanzeni, Nkangala District Municipality, Steve Tshwete and City of Mbombela local municipalities were able to submit quality financial statements,” she added.