Parliament - Auditor-General Kimi Makwethu on Wednesday revealed irregular spending at South Africa's municipalities decreased from R29.7 billion to R25.2 billion, but added the latter figure was likely to climb.
Releasing the 2017/18 audit outcomes of municipalities, Makwetu said the irregular spend contributed to several municipalities' audit outcomes regressing - with only 18 clean audits recorded and only half the 257 municipalities achieving unqualified audits.
Irregular spending refers to money spent in contravention of supply chain management policies and could be an indication of corruption.
"The amount could be even higher, as 46 percent of the municipalities were either qualified on the incomplete disclosure of irregular expenditure or disclosed in the financial statements that they did not know the full extent of irregular expenditure," Makwetu said.