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The North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Local Government and Human Settlements is also concerned on high vacancy rate in key senior positions which leads to non-performance hence the worst  performance by municipalities of North West in the country.  

This came after the Office of the Auditor General presented the Provincial Audit outcomes of North West Municipalities for the Municipal Finance Management Act financial year 2015/16.

The Committee Chairperson, Motlalepula Rosho said the Committee is disappointed on the audit outcomes of the municipalities which regressed in the financial year under review and how municipalities do not benefit from the usage of such consultants.

“It is worrying that in all the 23 municipalities and three (3) municipal entities used consultants to prepare the annual financial statements for audit, they were alternatively returned by the Office of the Auditor General for further corrections but the audit outcomes did not improve. 

“The question that ponders our minds as the committee is ‘what is the role of the officials employed in the municipalities’, Rosho reiterated. 

“There is no value for money as the audit outcomes have regressed, consultants are paid and at the same  AG  was also paid Audi fees, whereby he returned the financial statements prepared by consultants. 

“There is “No municipality that can prove that annual financial statements prepared by the consultants were never returned for corrections. It is a complete waste of state resources which run into millions meant for service delivery,” said Rosho.

Rosho said high vacancy rate in the year under review shows that there is no capable human capital to improve service delivery. 

“There is also poor performance in the municipalities to ensure that there is compliance on key legislation and regulations. The Acting Business Executive at Provincial Auditor General’s Office, Schalla Van Wyk said even after the appointment of consultants, eighteen (18) municipalities still did not achieve unqualified audit outcomes.

“In the financial year under review, R26 million was paid by the Provincial Treasury on those consultants. Lack of improvement on audit outcomes is mainly due to lack of document and records maintained by such municipalities; lack of progress in addressing underlying weaknesses in internal key controls and limited steps were taken to investigate previous transgressions which resulted in inadequate consequence management. 

Van Wyk said most contributors to the unauthorised; irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditures are municipalities which received numerous provincial interventions such as Ngaka Modiri Molema District; Mahikeng; Matlosana; the then Ventersdorp (NW405) and Madibeng Local Municipalities.

 He further said an amount of R142 million in grant funding in the current financial year was surrendered back to the National Treasury and additional R466,1 million in the previous financial year due to underspending.

Rosho said the high usage of consultants also compromised Provincial Treasury’s resolution to minimise consultancy reliance. 

“Finance Department (FEED) must explain how a small municipality such as Kagisano-Molopo can spend R18,6 million and Madibeng Local Municipality, R19,3 million on consultants just to prepare annual financial statements. Their audit outcomes have not improved yet communities are complaining about lack of service delivery,” said Rosho.

Rosho said the Committee will hold a joint meeting with the Standing Committee on Provincial Public Accounts, Portfolio Committee on Premier, Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development, South African Local Government Association,  the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements and Department of Finance Economy and Enterprise Development to reflect on a radical turn-around strategy to assist the municipalities to improve its performance but also provide a best service to its communities. 

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