Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
How is his Department going to assist the six municipalities that did not receive clean audits to improve their governance so that the entire Western Cape lives up to the principle of sound fiscal discipline and (b) what measures does his Department have in place to ensure that a clean audit opinion has a visible impact on the quality of life of people in the municipality concerned?
In the Western Cape Province, twenty-three (23) out of the thirty (30) municipalities received clean audits, which are classified as being unqualified audit opinions without any matters raised, this is an indication that the leadership of municipalities in the Province places a strong emphasis on clean governance. Of the remaining seven (7) municipalities, five (5) received unqualified audit opinions with findings. These five (5) Municipalities are on the Back to Basics Support Programme in terms of which custom-made support plans have been developed to assist them with outstanding financial and governance issues as well as key control deficiencies.
The only two municipalities in the Western Cape Province which did not receive an unqualified audit opinion are:
- Oudtshoorn Municipality, the Municipality received a qualified audit opinion with matters raised. During the year under review (2015-16 financial year), the Oudtshoorn Municipality was placed under administration in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution.
The Section 139 intervention at the Oudtshoorn Municipality has subsequently ended, with a comprehensive support package from the Department still in progress.
- Kannaland Municipality received an adverse audit opinion. The Municipality has been placed under administration in the current financial year (2015-16) and given the collaborative work under way at Kannaland, it is expected that the audit outcomes will improve in due course.
- The Provincial Government adopted an integrated management approach, which allows for all three (3) spheres of government to implement various initiatives to improve financial management and governance at municipalities. The Premier has also emphasized municipal audit matters during the PCF (Premier’s Coordinating Forum), with the focus on improving audit outcomes. In addition, the governance requirements are regularly reinforced during intergovernmental engagements with municipalities.
Initiatives to improve audit outcomes are fundamentally driven by the Department of Local Government and the Provincial Treasury, these include planning sessions in the form of IDP Indabas, TIME (Technical Integrated Municipal Engagements), LGMTEC (Local Government Medium-Term Expenditure Committee) engagements, as well as Mid-year and quarterly assessments. Based on the findings of these sessions and assessments, municipalities are rated in terms of their maturity levels and where gaps are identified, specific and dedicated support plans are developed, which focuses on financial and service delivery governance as well as stakeholder management related support.
Given the positive track record as far as clean governance is concerned, the Department of Local Government has subsequently adopted a strategy whereby special attention and support is given to the people living in our municipalities. This approach is called the “citizen centric approach” and will give special attention to strengthen community participation and stakeholder governance at municipalities.
On a practical level a number of projects has already been formulated for implementation, which include the Citizen Engagement Application (Citizen APP), Ward Committee Training, Development of a Good Governance Model for Local Government, as well as dedicated funding support for ward based projects.
