Makana scores among the five worst Eastern Cape municipalities, where R1.27 billion in misspent funds has been blamed on poor leadership, and power struggles. Prudence Mini reports.Blatant disregard for policies, and the law, are sabotaging efforts to clean up Eastern Cape municipalities; nearly half of which have got the thumbs-down from the Auditor General. In the top-five hall of shame is Makana.
The Auditor General’s recently released provincial general report on local government, based on the 2009-10 audit outcomes, says poorly controlled spending at 32 local municipalities in the Eastern Cape puts at risk Operation Clean Audit 2014 – the government’s drive for clean administration in all its spheres.
Makana scores among the five worst Eastern Cape municipalities, where R1.27 billion in misspent funds has been blamed on poor leadership, and power struggles. Prudence Mini reports.Blatant disregard for policies, and the law, are sabotaging efforts to clean up Eastern Cape municipalities; nearly half of which have got the thumbs-down from the Auditor General. In the top-five hall of shame is Makana.
The Auditor General’s recently released provincial general report on local government, based on the 2009-10 audit outcomes, says poorly controlled spending at 32 local municipalities in the Eastern Cape puts at risk Operation Clean Audit 2014 – the government’s drive for clean administration in all its spheres.
The "unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure", the report said, was due to "blatant and sometimes deliberate disregard for policies, procedures, laws and regulations". Worst on the list was OR Tambo District Municipality, with 8 627 instances making up 32% of the total misspending in the Eastern Cape. Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality was next, with 3 966, or 15% of the misspending total in the province, followed by Senqu (2 775 or 10%). Makana was next, with 2 507 reported instances of misspending, making up 9% of the province's total. Joe Gqabi District Municipality was fifth worst (2 000 instances and 7%). Misspending in other Eastern Cape municipalities totalled 7 110, or 26%.
Of the 41 audits on financial statements of Eastern Cape municipalities that the Auditor General reported on, there was only a small improvement on past audit outcomes and 46% received disclaimers or adverse audit opinions. According to the report, the unfavourable outcomes are mainly due to: A volatile political climate within the councils; inadequate leadership practices, which were not conducive to solid accountability, structured oversight and sound governance practices; insufficient commitment to address the prior year audit outcomes. "The mere occurrence of these types of expenditure is reason for concern and goes directly against the drive for clean administration by the year 2014. It points to blatant and sometimes deliberate disregard for policies and laws and regulations," reads the report.
In a more positive tone, it says the induction process planned for new mayors and councillors after the 2011 elections, organised by the Office of the Premier, is an excellent opportunity to reinforce the need to adhere to the law. President Jacob Zuma, during his recent visit to Makana to receive the Freedom of the City, said there had been steady progress towards cleaner municipal audits.
In his speech to thank the municipality for the honour, he said the ANC had indicated during the elections that they wanted to build corruption-free and efficiently run municipalities. "Since the launch of Operation Clean Audit 2014 in 2009, steady progress has been made in efforts to achieve clean municipal audits. This will ensure more prudent and corruption-free use of state resources," Zuma said, adding that the increase in the number of municipalities that had achieved clean audits – from only four in the 2008-09 financial year, to seven in the 2009-10 financial year – was a significant achievement.
