High rate of irregular spending by municipalities a concern

Polokwane Municipality is among five institutions in Limpopo having incurred cumulative irregular expenditure amounting to R5,5 billion, having to answer to the Auditor-General on R89 million in expenses not clarified in the 2017/18 audit report that was just issued.
Mogalakwena irregularly spent R374 million, Greater Letaba R96 million, Elias Motsoaledi R83 million and Fetakgomo Tubatse R77 million.
Another alarming factor is that municipalities spent in excess of R177 million on consultants to assist with duties that are supposed to be executed by officials. According the the report, 96% of the municipalities in Limpopo used consultants at a cost of R177 million. The eight municipalities that obtained unqualified audit opinions all used consultants at a cost of R43 million, of which Elias Motsoaledi contributed R25 million. Municipalities that obtained qualified audit opinions spent R78 million, with Polokwane contributing the most at R35 million; while municipalities with adverse or disclaimed opinions spent R56 million, being Mopani District, Vhembe District and Collins Chabane contributing R24 million, R19 million and R13 million respectively.
No clean audit findings for Limpopo
None of the municipalities in Limpopo received a clean audit, however, eight municipalities received financially unqualified audit opinions with findings with Capricorn District Municipality doing so for the 5th consecutive year. Capricorn and Sekhukhune district municipalities and Elias Motsoaledi, Ephraim Mogale, Greater Letaba, Maruleng, Molemole and Thulamela municipalities received financially unqualified audit opinions with findings, while Waterberg District Municipality and Ba-Phalaborwa, Bela-Bela, Blouberg, Fetakgomo Tubatse, Greater Giyani, Greater Tzaneen, Lepelle-Nkumpi, Lephalale, Makhado, Makhuduthamaga, Musina and Polokwane received financially qualified audit opinions with findings.
Mopani District Municipality and Mogalakwena Municipality received adverse opinions with findings while Vhembe District Municipalty and Collins Chabane Municipality received disclaimers with findings. The audit of Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality was not finalised.
Leadership to set the tone
Makwetu unequivocally asserted that the current governance relapses besetting local government could only be turned around if the leadership was to take the lead in the drive towards wholesale clean administration in the public sector. “The leadership sets the tone at the top at any organisation. If an organisation’s leaders are unethical; have a disregard for governance, compliance and control and are not committed to transparency and accountability, it will filter through to the lower levels of the organisation. Inevitably, a culture of poor discipline, impunity and non-delivery will develop, leading to the collapse of the organisation,” Makwetu concluded.
Polokwane Municipality was requested to comment but by the time of going to print had not responded.

Story: BARRY VILJOEN
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