The ritualized annual Local Government audit report again points to a disaster in the management of municipal finances. Only 20 out of 250 municipalities got a clean audit. Over R32 billion can not be accounted for. This is the picture from just looking at the paper trail. This exercise by the Auditor General (AG) is both futile and also perpetuates a fraud in accounting. These expensive audits legitimise fraud at two levels – firstly at giving cooked books legitimacy; and secondly at creating the impression that there is a correlation between so called clean audits and service delivery. Such doesn’t exist and begs the question, what is the AG actually doing?
The AG shows that municipalities spend millions on consultants to “help” with financials. This is a euphemism for cooking the books to get clean audits. This makes a mockery of the audit process.
Most importantly there is no scientific evidence showing that municipalities that get clean audits perform any better on service delivery than those without clean audits. As a matter of fact studies have shown that there is no statistical significant difference between the audit failing municipalities and those that get clean audits when it comes to service delivery. This begs the question, what is the AG auditing? Paper or impact on people? Why perpetuate a lie with the seriousness of a Pope?
Local Government has collapsed. All political parties represented see it as the last door to steal and pillage. The audits tells us very little about the shocking state of affairs of the people’s lives. The AG needs to stop giving legitimacy to a fraudulent meaningless exercise.
Black First Land First (BLF) is calling for a different audit process which will use books as a mere starting point. The audit must reflect the impact on the lives of the people. It’s time for a new Local Government model that put the people first!
Issued by Black First Land First, National Coordinating Committee of (BLF NCC)
6 July 2020
Contact Details
Black First Land First Mail: [email protected]
Zanele Lwana
(BLF Deputy President)
Cell: +27 79 986 7225