The Gauteng Provincial Government has welcomed the 2023/24 Municipal Audit Outcomes, in which only three municipalities received qualified audits, two received unqualified audits with no findings, and six towns received unqualified audits with findings.

Delivering the report in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Gauteng Economic Development and Finance MEC Lebogang Maile announced that the West Rand District, Murafeng City, and Mogale City local Municipalities showed improvement. At the same time, Tshwane, Merafeng, and Emfuleni received clean audits.

“Midvaal Local Municipality has maintained a clean audit. This is the municipality’s eleventh consecutive clean audit, and we commend the leadership and administration for this tremendous feat.

“Audit opinions for the City of Johannesburg, the City of Ekurhuleni, Rand West City Local Municipality, Sedibeng District Municipality, and Lesedi Local Municipality are unchanged – unqualified with findings.

“In the same period, the West Rand District Municipality, Merafong Local Municipality, and Mogale City Local Municipality improved their audit outcomes from unqualified with findings to unqualified with no findings, a disclaimer to a qualified opinion, and qualified to unqualified with findings, respectively.”

“The improvements that have transpired in the three stated municipalities are attributed to the efforts made to manage their audit better and prepare the audit file,” he explained.

Maile added that these municipalities had teams responsible for managing the previous audit findings issues and the current year's transactions specifically, adding, “The improvements are thus due to management implementing the recommendations from the previous year, mainly improving review controls.”

In the context of Mogale City Local Municipality, he stated that the improvement is also attributed to the efforts made to implement the recommendations from the previous year on asset management and the involvement of the Auditor General in its interim financial statements review.

“The West Rand District Municipality’s improvement from an outcome of unqualified with findings to unqualified with no findings is the result of rigorous reviews performed by the management working alongside other governmental institutions, including the GPT, the Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the South African Local Government Association.

“The joint efforts of the said institutions affirm the view of the Gauteng Provincial Government that effective governance in the province depends on strong and consistent inter-governmental relations and internal capacity development,” said Maile.

The audit opinions for the City of Tshwane and Emfuleni Local Municipality are unchanged from the 2022/23 financial year, with both being qualified.

He stated that this indicates the said municipalities' inability to implement the Auditor General’s 2022/23 financial year audit outcomes report recommendations.

Furthermore, he mentioned that the Provincial Treasury believed that while some municipal audit outcomes in the province are not ideal, there is room for improvement.

When asked whether underperforming municipalities shouldn't have been placed under administration, he said that this was no solution to tackle their challenges.

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