The Speaker of the Legislature, Hon. Basetsana R.S Dantjie held an oversight meeting with Auditor General of South Africa, Ms. Tsakani Maluleke together with management over the North West Local Government 2021/22 audit outcomes.

The Speaker of the Legislature, Hon. Basetsana R.S Dantjie held an oversight meeting with Auditor General of South Africa, Ms. Tsakani Maluleke together with management over the North West Local Government 2021/22 audit outcomes. Auditor General Maluleke presented audit outcomes for the financial year that ended on 30 June 2022 and status of material irregularities at 15 February 2023.

The meeting was also attended by Premier Kaobitsa Maape, MEC for the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Nono Maloyi; MEC for the Department of Finance, Motlalepula Rosho and Head of Department, Mr. Ndlela Kunene; Chairperson of South African Local Government Association in the North West province, Cllr. Khumalo Molefe and some Mayors from different municipalities in the province.

According to the Auditor-General Maluleke’s report, 20 percent of auditees received unqualified audit opinions with findings; 52 percent a qualified audit opinion; and 18 percent disclaimer audit opinions. “Majority of municipalities have undesirable audit outcomes but there has been a slight improvement. Councils are no longer rejecting provincial interventions which shows that there are better intergovernmental relations between local and provincial government.

“Provincial Treasury has also started to implement programmes that seek to address financial management issues, conducted budget assessments and took action to address financial distress through a formalised support approach,” Auditor-General Maluleke.
Premier Maape said the provincial government has drafted a turn-around plan to intervene in municipalities that have shown distress on audit outcomes. “We aim to deploy more officials from Provincial Treasury and COGHTA department to work with municipalities to remedy the situation such as weak and stagnant audit outcomes. We commit to change the situation by capacitating the struggling municipalities with capable personnel and good resources” said Premier Maape.

MEC for the Cooperative Governance, Nono Maloyi said the department met with municipalities where a turn-around strategy was presented and ensure that they make inputs. “We have serious capacity issues wherein some instances, 9 municipalities could not spend their conditional grants thus affecting service delivery on capital projects such as water and sanitation.
“We also told them that we will ensure that they employ capacitated and qualified personnel as there are currently about 17 Acting Municipal Managers in our 23 municipalities. The department is also starting with skills audit soon and if there are challenges there, we will engage the North West University to provide graduates that can be sent to municipalities to help with service delivery issues,” said MEC Maloyi.

MEC for the Provincial Treasury, Motlalepula Rosho said the
department is implementing financial recovery implementation plans in partnership with the National Treasury. “We are also building capacity and work with cooperative governance department to ensure that there is service delivery,” said MEC Rosho.
In conclusion, Speaker of the Legislature, Hon. Dantjie said the legislature appreciates efforts taken by the departments and the Auditor General’s office on assisting the municipalities to improve on their audit outcomes. “We appreciate the provincial government on the fresh and well-coordinated intervention in municipalities as with the current audit outcomes and it shows that there is some level of improvement.

“MEC Maloyi and MEC Rosho together with SALGA have been working hard to assist and change the situation in municipalities with their coordinated turn-around plan. The Cooperative Governance department has recently advertised for over 200 posts that will also ensure that the municipalities are assisted,” said Hon. Dantjie.
She also said the implementation of municipal recovery plans require political interventions as municipalities have been struggling to get enough revenue for service delivery.