Parliament, Wednesday, 11 September 2019 – The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) today concluded the two-day hearings with twelve municipalities that have been flagged as problematic municipalities by the Auditor-General (AG).
The committee could not conduct hearings with Masilonyana Local Municipality as the municipality is under administration and the committee was informed that the administrator withdrew. The municipality now has two interim administrators, one of them is the Head of the Provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), and the one is the Director-General in the Premier’s Office. One has sent an apology while the other is unknown. Scopa has requested this municipality to return on Tuesday, 17 September 2019.
The committee could not proceed with the hearings with the Mafube Local Municipality. The municipality is also under administration, and the administrator did not attend the hearings without an apology. Due to this, and the problems that exist at Mafuba municipality, Scopa has requested the municipality to return next week Tuesday, 17 September 2019. The committee has asked the municipality to return with the Free State Provincial Department of COGTA, the MEC of COGTA, the HOD of COGTA, the Administrator, the Mayor and officials of the municipality. The committee has also requested the municipal council to submit the resolution that appointed the Municipal Manager to it.
During the two-day hearings the committee has noted similarities across all the municipalities that it held hearings with. The committee has noted that all the municipalities have disclaimers for three to four consecutive years. It also became apparent that municipalities rely heavily on consultants despite the fact that there are officials employed in those functions.
A majority of the municipalities have voiced displeasure with the quality of work of these consultants, as they have done poor and shoddy work which has resulted in material misstatements. The AG has also flagged all these municipalities as employing finance staff that lack basic accounting principles which have been the root cause of the disclaimers.
Scopa has also noted that all the municipalities did not disclose deviations in their financial statements. This posed a difficulty as the committee could not, even interrogate the reasons for deviations and whether there were any merits to the deviations.
Other reasons that have contributed to the problems, these municipalities are facing, include leadership instability, non-compliance with legislation, no proper record keeping, lack of monitoring tools, lack of internal controls and all these have resulted in the millions of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditures.
Added to all the reports that Scopa has requested from all the municipalities, the committee has also taken a decision to schedule unannounced visits and oversight visits to some of the municipalities. Scopa has also taken a decision to prioritise these municipalities. In that regard the committee will be requesting monthly reports from these municipalities to check that they are sticking to the commitments they have made. Scopa has also resolved to schedule another hearing for the municipalities that could not appear before the committee in the past two days.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF SCOPA, MR MKHULEKO HLENGWA.
For media enquiries, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Ms Faith Ndenze
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8062
Cell: 081 377 0686
Email: fndenze@parliament.gov.za
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