North West Municipal Audit Outcomes paints a picture of a failed state
1 June 2023
Barely a week after the release of Ratings Africa’s annual Municipal Financial Sustainability Index (MFSI) confirmed the general state of collapse of North West municipalities, the Auditor-General’s (AG) municipal audit outcomes for the 2021/22 financial year released yesterday paints a picture of a province on the edge of becoming a fully-fledged failed state.
It is in the financial audit outcomes that we can verify what people experience in North West on a daily basis – a general collapse in basic service delivery and the decay or infrastructure. People in North West are increasingly being cut off from access to clean potable water and electricity supply, while raw sewage flows throughout every community.
Not a single North West municipality obtained a clean audit outcome. Ten municipalities obtained qualified opinions, six received disclaimed opinions, one obtained an adverse audit outcome and the audit outcomes of both the Mamusa and Ditsobotla local municipalities are outstanding in contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
The closing balance of irregular expenditure for North West municipalities is R30 billion with R3,2 billion incurred during the financial year under review. Unauthorised expenditure is at R2,3 billion and fruitless and wasteful expenditure came in at R306 million.