The Auditor-General of South Africa’s (Agsa) business executive responsible for Limpopo, Nthanyiseni Dhumazi unpacked the municipal audit results for the 2017/18 financial year during a media briefing at Agsa’s offices in the city on Tuesday and said that it showed a slight improvement.
“However, this improvement was consultant-driven at a very high cost, rather than as a result of a concerted effort by the leadership to address internal control deficiencies. Not a single municipality attained a clean audit opinion,” Dhumazi said and added that while the number of financially unqualified opinions decreased from nine to eight, the number of disclaimed opinions decreased from five to two. The number of qualified opinions increased from 10 to 13 while the number of adverse opinions decreased from three to two. The overall audit outcomes registered an improvement of seven municipalities, with five municipalities regressing.
Dhumazi reported that although irregular expenditure incurred in the 2017/18 financial year decreased from R1,879 billion to R1,063 billion, it is still unacceptably high. The five municipalities that contributed 68% of this amount were Mogalakwena (R374 million), Greater Letaba (R96 million), Polokwane (R89 million), Elias Motsoaledi (R83 million), and Fetakgomo-Tubatse (R77 million).
Story/photo: BARRY VILJOEN
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