THE uThungulu District Municipality has been lauded for leading the way in KZN after attaining four clean audits including its entities.
MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Nomusa Dube-Ncube congratulated the local district municipality last week for outperforming its provincial counterparts with a consecutive financial feat.
A total of 20 KZN municipalities and entities achieved clean audits for 2013/2014 from the Auditor-General (AG) – a massive improvement on the previous total of seven.
Among the clean audits were the uThungulu and iLembe Districts, uMhlathuze, Zululand and Mandeni municipalities.
Local municipal entities with clean audits included the uThungulu Financing Partnership, uThungulu House Development Trust, Ilembe Management Development and Enterprise Ilembe (PTY) LTD.
‘A clean audit is the result of a collective effort, not an individual,’ uThungulu Municipal Manager, Mandla Nkosi said.
‘We have strong leadership, capable management, a highly productive and motivated staff and a management team that is able to provide a good control environment. We not only achieved one clean audit but sustained it for two years.’
uMhlathuze Mayor Elphas Mbatha congratulated the City administration on Tuesday for their outstanding work.
‘We are extremely proud to retain the status we had last year. We thank all staff involved as this is a team effort by all departments led by finance,’ said Mbatha.
‘It is a very exciting time for us,’ said uMhlathuze Municipal Manager Dr NJ Sibeko.
‘This is the second time our processes are in place, which is indicative of a sustainable financial base. The finances are well managed and we acknowledge the oversight role of Councillors, which is critically important.’
Disclaimers
On the other end of the financial scale, Jozini and Hlabisa municipalities obtained a disclaimer of audit opinion. This means the auditee provided insufficient evidence in the form of documentation on which to base an audit opinion.
The AG said reasons for poor audit outcomes ranged from inadequate systems and processes to lack of adequate documentation and loopholes in the supply chain management processes.
‘In some of these municipalities, we have already intervened and we will be meeting with them to discuss their performance and to take appropriate remedial actions,’ Dube-Ncube said.
