The governing coalition in City of Tshwane has placed the blame for the dismal Auditor-General's report solely at the door of its former chief financial officer, Umar Banda.
Banda’s contract was terminated last month.
Following a meeting by the national coalition oversight group, the coalition met on Monday to receive reports from the mayoral committee on the AG's findings for the 2021/2022 financial year.
The AG found that the metro had misrepresented its financial statements with financial misconduct, poor internal controls, lack of proper management of its assets and lack of systems to detect irregular expenditures.
Spokesperson for the national coalition oversight group Dr Corné Mulder said all political parties remained unequivocal in their view that the audit outcome was unacceptable by the higher standards of a group of parties working to reverse the legacy of failed ANC governance.
“The meeting received compelling information that a number of audit findings arose from the seemingly deliberate actions of the former CFO to mislead the structures of the City of Tshwane and undersupply available information to the Auditor General.
“Equally, serious concerns about systems and controls have been revealed that demonstrate important improvements of governance that must be implemented urgently as well as consequence management for departmental failures,” Mulder said.
He added further meetings would be held to on the issue of political consequence management as well as the oversight the group will have of the Tshwane multi-party coalition government’s plans to implement the remedial steps outlined by the Auditor General.
The coalition comprises the DA, ActionSA, COPE, FF+, IFP, and the ACDP.
The report also flagged the lack of appropriate action taken against municipal officials where investigations proved financial misconduct. Allegations of financial misconduct were not investigated.
“Allegations of fraud and extortion which exceeded R100,000 were not reported to the South African Police Service, as required by section 34(1) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act,” it read.
Meanwhile, the ANC will convene a media briefing this afternoon on its response to the AG's findings.
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