Tshwane has announced that it has submitted its financial statements to the Auditor-General.
The metro missed the deadline for submission of its 2022/2023 financial statements on August 31.
It then postponed the submission at the recommendation of its audit and performance committee (APC).
Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba expressed delight that the financial affair was done within the promised date of November 30.
“Tshwane has successfully fulfilled its commitment to submit its financial statements and other relevant documents to the Auditor-General (AG). This accomplishment demonstrates the dedication to transparency, accountability and good governance.
As a responsible municipality, Tshwane recognises and cherishes the importance of providing accurate and timely financial information to the AG.”
He said the submission was a crucial step in ensuring that Tshwane’s financial affairs were properly audited and evaluated.
He said Tshwane hoped the AG’s independent assessment would further enhance its accountability and transparency, assuring residents, council, The Treasury, investors and other relevant stakeholders.
City manager Johann Mettler had delayed the submission after officials considered the recommendation of the APC favourable to afford the Tshwane sufficient time to adequately address some of the findings made by the AG in the 2021/22 financial year.
Mettler said Tshwane did not want to repeat the prior messy accounting report.
“City management, together with the executive, took a cautious approach this time around to ensure that we quality-assure the financials to avoid a recurrence of last year’s AG findings.
There are a few areas where we discovered that there were some glaring gaps that needed to be plugged,” Mettler said.
“We are doing things differently this year. We don’t want a repeat of the mistakes made last year.
We’re meticulous and paying attention to every detail.
We will ensure that we present credible and sound financial statements to the AG.”
Last year, Tshwane got a thumbs down from the AG after it could not provide supporting documents for the awarding of four tenders that amounted to almost R1-billion.
It became one of three municipalities in South Africa that got an adverse audit opinion for its financials.
According to the AG, the metro had insufficient staff within its asset management unit with the skills to carry out valuations of infrastructure assets or verification of the entire asset base.
AG Tsakani Maluleke’s on the local government audit outcomes for the financial year 2021/22 said the metro has for two consecutive years faced a worrisome financial position.
Despite the metro’s large budget, the AG found Tshwane to be the municipality with the most missing information for tender procurements.
Maluleke said while Tshwane made significant investments to implement and manage day-to-day business activities, the projects had failed due to ineffective management.
The metro also spent money on software licences it did not use.
Maluleke said if a municipality received an adverse audit opinion, it had submitted financial statements that were unreliable and could not be used for oversight and decision-making.
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Source: https://www.citizen.co.za/rekord/?p=478903
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