FS municipalities most problematic for not submitting financial statements for audit on time, SCOPA told

CAPE TOWN - The Free State has emerged as the most problematic province where municipalities don't submit their financial statements for audit on time.

And when they finally do, the outcome remains negative.

On Wednesday, the auditor-general's office laid bare before Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts the myriad problems within these municipalities and the impact on service delivery.

By the end of the January deadline, ten municipalities had failed to deliver audited financial statements to Parliament.

Six of these were in the Free State.

Since then, four of the audits have been completed, another four are underway, while two are still outstanding.

Head of audit at the auditor-general's office, Bongi Ngoma, said the delays don't result in a positive outcome.

"We hardly have a case where there's non-submission but they are unqualified with findings or they are clean audits. I think that's a story these outcomes tell."

Besides poor revenue collection, weak asset management, and incomplete infrastructure projects, audit portfolio head, Sharonne Adams, said the misuse of grant funding allocated by Treasury was particularly worrying.

"A common trend that we are indicating, we are saying this grant funding amount that you've disclosed that you've spent, we cannot confirm that it's been spent for the intended purpose, actually, for what the money was given, and spent."

The auditor-general's office said that attempts to get provincial government to intervene had not proven very successful.