The Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke, in her recent audit report, says these 22 municipalities either obtained unqualified opinions, qualified opinions with findings or disclaimed opinions, making them one of the worst-performing provinces. 

Meanwhile, Maluleke says only six municipalities in the Free State managed to obtain unqualified opinions but with findings, and the rest of them obtained outstanding audits. 

ALSO READ: NW municipalities continue to 'spend millions on consultants, despite warnings'

Furthermore, four municipalities in the Northern Cape obtained clean opinions, making them the only ones in central South Africa to obtain such opinions from Maluleke. 

In addition, five municipalities in the province received unqualified findings, with 15 receiving qualified findings, and the rest receiving either disclaimed or outstanding audits.

ALSO READ: Almost half of North West municipalities' expenditure irregular

Maluleke further stated in her report that nine municipalities in the North West have received disclaimed opinions, nine also got qualified but with findings, three received unqualified opinions - also with findings - and one with adverse findings.

“The lack of improvement in municipal outcomes is an indictment on the entire local government's accountability ecosystem, which failed to act and arrest the decline that continued to be characterised by service delivery challenges in municipalities,” Maluleke says.

ALSO READ: Free State municipalities fail to trace taxpayers' money

She says the new administration must instil a culture of performance, accountability, transparency and integrity.

“As the national audit office, we have a vision, shared by many, for this new administration to make significant strides towards instilling in local government a culture of performance, accountability, transparency and integrity,” Maluleke further adds.

OFM News previously reported that millions of rands are still being spent by the North West municipalities on consultants for work that can be done internally by municipal workers. 

Maluleke also told Members of Parliament (MPs) during a joint meeting on a virtual platform, that almost half (43%) of the money spent by North West municipalities was spent irregularly. 

Tsakani has told the MPs that three Free State municipalities are part of a group of six out of ten sampled municipalities that could not account for or keep track of where taxpayers' money went.  

OFM News