Same Old Song As Municipalities Fail Accountability Test – Parliament

ROLIVHUWA SADIKI

TROUBLED municipalities already spent a whopping R1.26-billion on independent consultants but still failed to achieve clean audits.

The poor financial management performance of municipalities this week raised the ire of parliament’s chairperson of the select committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs, water and sanitation and human settlements China Dodovu. “There is a serious problem here. Are we going to sit with the Auditor-General again next year and raise the very same problems if there is no concomitant action taken against anybody who is responsible for the financial mess in the municipalities?” he asked.

“Last year, the same problems were raised, and amongst them is the deteriorating accountability and lack of consequence management, a point that is highlighted today. If we don’t put a stop to this, next year we are going to face the same problems,” Dodovu said.

The committee heard that of the 183 municipalities that