Majority of Western Cape municipalities receive clean or unqualified audits

The Western Cape Government welcomes the latest announcement by the Auditor General with regard to the Audit outcomes of Local Government.  The Auditor General has awarded 29 out of the 30 municipalities in the Western Cape with clean or unqualified audits.

Only one municipality in the province – Kannaland - received an adverse finding.

Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister of Local Government, praised the efforts put in to improve the governance of municipalities in the province

“The outcomes are welcomed and show a massive improvement, considering only five years ago not one municipality in the province got a clean audit. Today there are 11.”

Bredell said good governance is the foundation upon which efficient municipalities operate.

“Various departments including local government, treasury and the office of the premier, have been involved in working to make the municipalities in the Western Cape the most efficiently run municipalities in the country. Hard work is still ongoing to keep improving overall governance and financial sustainability of local municipalities. We aim to keep improving. With regards to the municipalities where findings were made and more work is needed, the department will continue to monitor and support these entities as much as possible.”

Minister of Finance Ivan Meyer said that he was delighted with the results which shows the City of Cape Town to be the only Metro in the country to achieve a clean audit while 11 of the 22  local municipalities which received clean audits are based in the Western Cape. The Cape Town International Convention Centre which recently announced its expansion plans also received a clean audit. 

Meyer said that the audit results reflect the hard work that the Western Cape Government has put into ensuring that public funds are well managed.  

“Sound financial management remains the hallmark of a well-run administration. The audit results indicate that  twenty-nine of our municipalities in fact received  unqualified audit results (this includes the 11 clean audits) that the Western Cape is  indeed doing well”. 

The Western Cape Government would like to highlight a series of bespoke interventions that are in place to support municipalities to become stronger in particular areas. These include:

• Assisting municipalities with action plans to address issues raised in the audit  reports.
• Specialised training in Supply Chain Management and cash management.
• Hands-on support with budget, revenue and expenditure management.
• Year-round monitoring to gauge successes of action plans and remedy concerns as they arise.
• Support with the implementation of anti-corruption strategies where required.
• Interventions on critical governance issues to ensure administrative stability and  service delivery during periods of change where required.
• The establishment of Municipal Public Account Committees.
• Assistance with the implementation of shared services so that services may be  rendered at affordable costs.
• Support to develop software systems aimed at improving organisational efficiency and accountability

The Western Cape government remains committed to delivering clean government to the people of the Western Cape. Good governance and efficiently run municipalities remain key to delivering the services needed to make the province a better place for all who live in it. Working together with local authorities and other stakeholders, the Western Cape government will seek to build on the latest outcomes going forward.