Polokwane municipality fails again, produces fifth consecutive qualified audit outcome

The Polokwane Municipality in Limpopo has done it again.

According to the office of the Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke, the city has again produced a qualified audit outcome. This audit outcome is the fifth for the municipality in consecutive years. The outcome was submitted by the AG for the financial year ending 30 June last year.

The last unqualified report was during the 2015-2016 year and the past 12 years have yielded two disclaimer reports, eight qualified opinions, and only two unqualified reports. According to the audit, poor asset management, insufficient record keeping, and understated revenue of R124 716 941 were to blame for this dismal performance.

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Some of the additional items highlighted by the AG, many of which are repeated annually, are that reasonable steps were not taken to prevent unauthorised (R614 252 938) and irregular (R72 934 604) expenditure, some contracts were modified without the approval of a properly delegated official and that the performance of contractors was insufficiently monitored.

Also noted were that contract performance and monitoring measures were not in place and there had been no investigations to determine if any person should be held liable for unauthorised and irregular expenditure and ineffective internal controls for debtors and revenue.