Auditor-General vows to act on misuse of resources
As a result, the accountability for financial and performance management continued to worsen, he said.
Ugu District Municipality was ranked among five municipalities in the province which had failed to disclose the full extent of their irregular expenditure.
This is according to the latest municipal audit results – which show an overall decline for the 2017-18 fiscal year – released by Auditor-General (AG), Kimi Makwetu last Wednesday.
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According to Mr Makwethu Ugu, together with Ethekwini Metro, uThukela District, uMzinyathi District, and uMkhanyakude District, collectively accounted for R1.76 billion, or 60 percent, of the total disclosed irregular expenditure amount.
He added these deteriorating audit outcomes showed that various local government role players had been slow in implementing or, in many instances, even disregarded the audit office’s recommendations.
As a result, the accountability for financial and performance management continued to worsen, he said.
According to the AG, the lack of consequences and the non-recovery of money from officials responsible for incurring the irregular expenditure were a concern.
“Effective disciplinary steps based on recommendations arising from these investigations were not always taken against officials at these municipalities,” he added.
Evidence of this could be seen in largely incomplete projects, unsupervised projects, and lack of maintenance of significant service delivery infrastructure, he said.
The AG said it also remained concerning that although some chief financial officers were competent and qualified, they still appointed consultants to assist with financial reporting.
Mr Makwetu warned that from now on, municipalities that continued to misuse resources would face criminal prosecution.
“I have a team of auditors and accountants who have the ability to identify the risks. We do not need whistle-blowers. We are going to identify the material irregularities and act on them,” he vowed.
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