The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegation to the Eastern Cape has promised to join hands with the Eastern Cape government in a bid to ensure that the province's municipalities receive clean audits.
"We are not here to police the province; rather we want to lend our support to the struggling municipalities. We want to ensure that the necessary intervention by the respective institutions is provided in order for them to move closer to achieving clean audits," said Ms Zukiswa Rantho, NCOP's Eastern Cape provincial Whip.
Ms Rantho added that their main focus was to ensure that "repeat offenders" – municipalities that have been found to be getting the same negative audit outcomes – were rescued.
This commitment came after a meeting between the NCOP delegates, Auditor General and Eastern Cape Government as well as South African Local Government Association (SALGA) at the Good News Conference Centre, King William's Town in the Eastern Cape.
Said Mr Singa Ngqwala from the Auditor General’s Office: "We believe that if political and management leadership, both at national and provincial levels, could effectively exercise their oversight responsibilities, things can improve."
According to the AG's report, eight municipalities regressed with 21 not changing and only 16 improvements. Alfred Nzo is one of the municipalities which have not shown any improvement for many years.
Mr Mlibo Qoboshiyane, MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, said the province was committed to seeing municipalities perform well. "In our endeavors to see our municipalities improve their audit outcomes, we have assisted municipalities in establishing municipal audit committees. Most of our municipalities now have their own audit committees and others are still using the shared services," he said.
SALGA stressed that leadership was critical if clean audit outcomes were to be achieved. With regard to ensuring appointment of suitably qualified senior managers, the association undertook to be part of the short-listing panel and the subsequent interviews to avoid the appointment of wrong candidates.
For interviews with the Eastern Cape leader of the NCOP delegation Ms Zukiswa Ratho, please contact:
Temba Gubula
Cell: 078 735 8809
