Six municipal entities achieve clean audits in Integrated Annual Report
JOBURG – The City of Johannesburg revealed that they received an unqualified audit from the Auditor General.
This was revealed during Member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance Geoffrey Makhubo’s presentation of the City of Joburg’s Integrated Annual Report (IAR) for 2014/2015 at Emoyeni Conference Centre in Parktown.
The IAR informs the city’s residents and stakeholders about the achievements towards the objectives, strategies and actions set out in the City’s Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) – Joburg 2040.
Makhubo said, “It is also pleasing to note that the number of municipal entities who achieved clean audits has increased to six.” The entities that achieved clean audits in 2014/15 were Johannesburg Social Housing Company, Joburg Theatres, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Pikitup, Johannesburg Property Company and Johannesburg Development Agency.
The MMC said the City was proud of this achievement, and corrective measures and action plans had been put in place to ensure that matters reported by the Auditor General were remedied going forward. Makhubo said, “Very few of our current critics want to be reminded of the fact that Johannesburg teetered on the brink of bankruptcy before the ANC took over the running of Johannesburg at the advent of democracy.”
He revealed that in the 2014/15 period, the City achieved a surplus of R3.9 billion (R3.8 billion in 2013/14), in line with the approved budget, notwithstanding the economic climate which remained fragile throughout the financial year.
“We have remained focused on our targets and accomplished what we set out to achieve: The City increased its capital spending by 38 percent from R7 billion in 2013/14 to R10.1 billion in the current year… Our multi-year budget appropriation is beginning to yield results for the City as evidenced [by] the ability of the departments and entities to spend the capital budget appropriated.”
Meanwhile, City manager, Trevor Fowler, said the City had spent 94 percent of an increased capital expenditure budget (from R7.7 billion in the 2013/14 financial year to R10.1 billion in the current year) in the year under review. “Progressive increases in surpluses rose from R3.5 billion in 2013 to R3.9 billion in 2015,” Fowler revealed. He added that 4 681 small, medium and micro enterprises were supported.
Fowler said there had been a 9.55 percent reduction of reported crime and a reduction of 22 percent in actual crime in the citu. The City’s total revenue was R42 billion.
