OPINION: For the past six years, every single AGreport into the financial state of municipalities has shown an accelerating downward trend in public finances, writes TheJaundicedEye.
The auditor-general, conveniently for the government, waited until after the State of the Nation Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to release his annual report. The president should be appropriately grateful.
“There are increasing indicators of a collapse. We assessed 76% of the municipalities to have a financial health status that was either concerning or requiring urgent intervention,” Makwetu said. Almost a billion rand worth of tenders were fraudulent awards to state-employed officials. Another R1.2bn of procurement could not be audited because of missing or incomplete documentation - in local government, “misfiled” or “lost” are synonyms for “stolen” or “shredded”.
The big auditing firms have already taken a reputational hammering over complicity in state capture at SOEs and criminal incompetence or collusion with private sector shenanigans, like the Steinhoff collapse. They fare no better in their highly paid work for local government.
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