The embattled Oudtshoorn municipality has received an unqualified audit report from the Auditor General.
|||Cape Town -
The embattled Oudtshoorn municipality has received an unqualified audit report from the auditor general for the 2011/12 financial year, in spite of a deluge of claims of poor governance, maladministration and failure to approve its budget.
The Klein Karoo local government authority has been besieged since 2007 by problems relating to poor governance, crippling political infighting, hostile take-over attempts, and an ongoing Special Investigating Unit probe into claims of maladministration and fraud.
And now the auditor general’s findings have irked opposition party members, who claim the town’s sordid history of corruption and maladministration shows clearly that all is not well there.
“So what if you have an unqualified report, when you’re sitting with an SIU report that shows millions of rands worth of fraud being committed in the municipality?” local DA spokesman Chris MacPherson said.
He stressed that the auditor general merely looked at whether the necessary financial systems were adhered to.
The municipality last week proudly announced that its unqualified audit report indicated it was living up to the municipality’s institutional values, which included integrity and transparency.
“Solid financial reporting allows the administration to provide a better service, improve the lives of people, eradicate extreme poverty, and create a conducive environment for sustainable economic and social development,” mayor Gordon April said.
The municipality did, however, concede that it would have to improve in some areas, such as supply chain management.
“The unqualified audit report indicates that Oudtshoorn’s accounting standards and practices are in robust health, and that the financial statements provide a true and fair representation of the municipality’s actual financial state of affairs,” April said.
The same week the municipality released the audit findings, two attempts by its council to approve its budget and integrated development plan during a special council meeting failed.
The first meeting on Tuesday ended in chaos with the DA and Cope councillors walking out, refusing to return even after the municipal manager and the speaker granted them 30 minutes to reconsider.
A second meeting set down for Friday also failed to produce positive results after the DA and Cope councillors voted against the budget and plan.
The majority councillors, 11 DA councillors and one from Cope, rejected the budget and the plan, claiming these were a farce since the council had never approved an organogram for the municipality.
MacPherson said even senior ANC members at Luthuli House last week publicly confirmed the more than 40 percent over-expenditure on staff.
He added that the financial year report and statements for the previous year had also not been approved by the council, making it even more impossible for the DA to support the budget.
warda.meyer@inl.co.za
Weekend Argus