AG Report: Inquiry needed into COGTA failures
31 July 2014
The DA will request a parliamentary inquiry by the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) into a number of glaring failures by the National Department in providing proper support and oversight to local government.
The committee's press release today regarding their position on Minister Gordhan's plans regarding these results is completely premature, given that neither the Minister nor the Auditor General (AG) have come to report on the audit comes.
Indeed, according to the AG, a staggering increase of R542 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure by municipalities was recorded between 2011/12 and 2012/13. Moreover, during the same period, "irregular and wasteful expenditure" increased to R11, 6 billion, up from R6, 7 billion in 2011/12.
319 Audits were conducted of which only 22 municipalities and 8 municipal entities received clean audits. No municipality in the Free State, North West, Eastern Cape and Limpopo received a clean audit.