Government encouraged by municipal audit outcomes

Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu's report shows that 49 out of 263 municipalities achieved clean audits over the past financial year.

Deputy Minister Andries Nel says there is continuing trend of improved audit outcomes, with more than 62 percent of municipalities that are either receiving clean or unqualified audit opinions.

"Also, we've seen a dramatic decrease in the number of municipalities getting disclaimers which are the worst possible audit outcomes, where the Auditor-General can't even express an opinion," says Nel.

"In 2008/09 there were 104 municipalities that had disclaimers. For 2015/2016 that had comes down to 25."

But Nel says some concerns remain. 

"We are encouraged by the fact that the fruitless and wasteful expenditure in municipalities has gone down and that unauthorised expenditure has stabilised, but the increase in irregular expenditure, especially linked to supply-chain management, is a source of great concern," says Nel.