Gauteng's
MEC of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile, has
congratulated Gauteng municipalities for sustaining positive audit outcomes
over the past three years.


“On behalf of the Gauteng Provincial Government we would like to congratulate
Mid-Vaal for obtaining a clean audit, whilst other municipalities achieved 100%
unqualified audit opinion amidst the current financial viability challenges
they are facing,” said MEC Maile. 
MEC
Maile is emboldened by the fact tha Gauteng's municipalities continue to adhere
to Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) prescripts that municipalities
submit annual reports to their respective municipal councils. According to the
Auditor General's report by 31 May 2019, of all audits completed, only
municipalities in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape have
fully complied with this MFMA prescript – all registering a 100% tabling rate.
While
great achievement has been noticed and applauded, Gauteng province remains
concerned with the financial viability challenges facing municipalities, and
their impact on their ability to effectively respond to the mandate of improved
service delivery. 



This concern is rooted in a much more fundamental imperative that
decision-makers at local government, and political custodians should strengthen
their leadership role and eradicate the trust deficit between communities and
local government in line with people centred programmes that focuses on service
delivery. 


MEC Maile believes that this will ensure that communities begin to own their
development. Furthermore, MEC Maile said, "one of the key indicators of
this will be for communities to not only pay for the services they consume, but
to also protect the infrastructure that delivers these services”.



The management and staff of the municipalities should rise to the occasion of
satisfying the Auditor General strict requirements to achieve clean audits.

MEC Maile concluded by saying “Unqualified clean audit is just a foundation to
ensure that the municipalities are able to account for their budget, and now is
time to take a step a little further for clean governance and accountability​
​