After five consecutive years of receiving unqualified audit opinions from the Auditor-General (AG), Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) has managed to achieve a clean audit opinion for the 2018/19 financial year.
Upon accepting the report during a council meeting last Thursday, Executive Mayor John Mpe is quoted to have said that the clean audit is an indication of the commitment made to ensure that public finances are managed well and that all costs incurred are accounted for. “It is of utmost importance to ensure that all resources are used towards improving the quality of life of our people. In the previous year we did declare that we were just a few steps from a clean audit and finally we managed to get everything right and we are delighted that we have managed to please the AG more than any other institution in the province,” Mpe said.
“This is a culmination of many years of hard work and the financial year before this one under review we were just one material finding away from a clean audit and had it not been for that finding, this could have been the second consecutive clean audit,” he explained.
He added that this clean audit confirms CDM as model provincial entity for benchmarking by other districts and local municipalities.
“Credit goes to all employees for living up to our vision of being the home of excellence and also our mission to deliver in an efficient manner through competent people, and we hope that this will go a long way in inspiring other organs of state, especially municipalities, to do better and improve governance”, he said. “We also thank all stakeholders including our community who through public participation, implore us and keep us in check to do well in matters of governance and delivery and thank them for their contribution to this achievement,” Mpe said.
The audit report was referred to the council’s Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) for oversight and inclusion in the 2018/19 annual report.
The audit reports of other municipalities will be made public once released by the AG and been tabled in council.
Story: BARRY VILJOEN
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