Treasury and auditor-general join forces to cut wasteful expenditure in municipalities
The Treasury will work with the office of the auditor-general to reduce wasteful, irregular and unauthorised expenditure in municipalities, finance minister Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday. He also urged law enforcement agencies to act against those implicated in wrongdoing. Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu announced in May that audit outcomes in municipalities have continued to regress, with irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure ballooning more than 70% for the 2016/2017 financial year. Irregular expenditure specifically increased 75% to R28.4bn in 2016/17, up from R16bn in 2015/16. Mboweni said in his maiden medium-term budget policy statement in parliament that this is the first step to strengthen financial management in the government. The second step is the deployment of skilled professionals at local government level to boost revenue collection and attain developmental objectives.
“Many of these are retirees that have heard the president’s ‘thuma mina’ call,” Mboweni ...
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