With his term nearing its end, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu has released his most damning local government report yet, condemning the flagrant abuse of public funds in the local sphere. And for good reason — despite policy utterances, numerous support programmes and a collaborative approach by his office, local government continued to experience a deterioration in audit outcomes in the 2018/2019 financial year.
In his report “Not much to go around, yet not the right hands at the till”, Makwetu bemoans the fact that “billions of funds allocated to municipalities are managed in ways that are contrary to the prescripts and generally recognised accounting disciplines”. This is especially pertinent in a time of recession and austerity, when every cent from the public purse needs to not only to be accounted for, but be well spent...
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