Culture of impunity

Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu released the consolidated local government audit results for the 2018/19 financial year on Wednesday. The results are shocking but not entirely surprising.

The report reveals that only one out of 39 municipalities in the Eastern Cape obtained a clean audit. Nationally, only 20 of the country’s 257 municipalities attained a clean audit — a regression from 33 in the two previous financial years.

In the Eastern Cape, irregular expenditure amounted to R2.5bn for the 2018/19 financial year — taking it to R11bn for the past three financial years, while across the country municipalities’ irregular expenditure increased to R32bn in that financial year, up from R25.2bn in 2017/18. Wasteful expenditure amounted to R2bn.

This is a grim picture that we have sadly become accustomed to every year. The question that we should be asking, and rightfully so, is for how long will this culture of impunity be allowed to go on with the only consequence being naming and shaming during the release of audit reports?

Coincidentally, Makwetu's report comes a few weeks after justice minister Ronald Lamola told parliamentarians that in the past 14 years only 67 people have been prosecuted for financial misconduct in municipalities, and of the 67, only nine have been convicted. Clearly the justice system is not helping to stem corruption, hence we are inclined to agree with the auditor-general when he says there is a general tolerance for transgressions in municipalities.

Section 71 of the Municipal Finance Management Act makes it clear that the accounting officer of a municipality must submit monthly budget monitoring reports to the mayor and the relevant provincial treasuries. The adverse reports demonstrate that those charged with oversight responsibilities are either complicit or sleeping on duty and must take equal blame with the delinquent municipal technocrats.

Perhaps that speaks to the calibre of councillors in the municipalities as well — it's high time we demand a certain level of qualification for someone to serve as a councillor.

Lack of skilled professionals has been flagged as one of the reasons for negative audit results. While this may be true, it is a bad excuse that has been overused to explain away habitual failures.

Sengqu municipality — our only shinning star in the province — is a small, rural, local authority but has achieved two consecutive clean audits. Surely there are best practices that can be learnt from them.

In his inaugural state of the nation speech in 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised to turn the tide against corruption. If he is serious, let’s see him take action against those responsible for R32bn lost through corruption in the 2018/19 financial year.

If we don’t slam brakes on the culture of non-accountability, fruitless and wasteful expenditure will continue to dominate audit outcomes.