CONSOLIDATED GENERAL REPORT on the audit outcomes of LOCAL GOVERNMENT 2010-11
FOREWORD
I hereby present to National Parliament, provincial legislatures and municipal councils my 2010-11 general report on local government audit outcomes. I use this opportunity to take stock of Operation clean audit, and the most significant risks we face in our administrations.
Operation clean audit was launched by government in 2009 to address the poor audit outcomes of local government. Although many advances had been made in transforming local government since 1994, the legislative reforms and the financial and performance reporting practices had not been institutionalised. Operation clean audit inspired focus, and over the past three years initiatives were launched to support the achievement of the clean audit goal.
My office and I also responded with the introduction of quarterly assessments of the key controls of our auditees in the areas of leadership, fi nancial and performance management and governance. We sought meaningful engagements with political leaders on a quarterly basis to share our assessments and identify risks and we invited commitments to address the stumbling blocks in the way of clean audits.
At these meetings across our country, I have said that in spite of all these initiatives and commitments, the progress towards clean audits has been slow. The 2010-11 audit outcomes did not show improvement, with about 50% of auditees unable to submit their annual financial statements in time or obtain financially unqualified audit opinions. The majority of those that received financially unqualified audit opinions achieved it by correcting the mistakes identified through the audit process.