A look at the documentation from National Treasury and the Auditor-General will show hundreds of workshops on financial management and audit training at councils across South Africa. Not just this year, but in 2018, 2017 and previous years. The government publicly makes much of how most, if not all councils have audit committees to oversee expenditure and to ensure statutory and regulatory compliance.
Previous audit findings had been ignored, according to the consolidated audit outcomes reports, as the Auditor-General found “material non-compliance with legislation on implementing consequences at 60% of the municipalities — an increase from 54% the previous year” and 74% of councils failed to adequately follow up allegations of financial and procurement misconduct and fraud.at municipalities.
These are real-time examples of how troubled municipal finances affect workers, and communities, giving life to the flailing financial conduct shown in consecutive years in the Auditor-General’s audit findings. The Financial and Fiscal Commission is only too aware of this. At its Monday briefing, several examples of financial shenanigans emerged, such as the disappearance of the allocation for a stadium at Potchefstroom in the North West that was never built. Or the R3-billion Rustenburg rapid transport system where phase one was meant to be completed by 2016, but by 2017 only 40% of the project phase was complete, “with no records of the total costs incurred”, according to the commission report.
In a rare, but important, acknowledgement of national and provincial contribution to local government financial instability, the FFC recommends government departments be treated like any other defaulters.