Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has named and shamed 17 municipalities that failed to submit their annual statements for auditing purposes at the end of August.
Municipalities are required by the Public Audit Act to submit their financial statements for auditing at least three months after the end of the financial year in June.
In her letter to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Maluleke detailed the delays in the submission of separate and consolidated financial statements of local government.
“This serves as notification to you of the failure by specified auditees listed in annexure A to submit annual financial statements for auditing the 2022/23 audit cycle in terms of section 133 of the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003,” she said.
Maluleke also said the legislated due date for the submission of municipal annual financial statements to the auditor-general was August 31.
“The AG must submit an audit report on those statements to the accounting officer of the municipality or municipal entity within three months of receipt of the statements.
“I would like to inform Parliament of the failure by the listed 17 auditees to submit the annual financial statements for auditing,” she said.
Maluleke named the Swellendam Municipality and Kannaland Municipalities in the Western Cape.
In the North West, the Disotsoba local municipality and Mamusa local municipality failed to submit their statements. The City of Tshwane failed to submit the statements, while in Limpopo, the Makhado and Elias Motsoaledi local municipalities were named by Maluleke.
Koukamma municipality in Eastern Cape was also on the list along with the Tutsubane, Ubuntu, Phokwane, Kareeberg and Kai Garib local municipalities in the Northern Cape.
There were five municipalities in the Free State which included the Nala, Masilonyana, Moqhaka and Mafube local municipalities.
The Ditsobotla local municipality has failed to submit its annual financial statements for both the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.
Cape Times