Hon Chair, has the Rapid Response technical support team been able to assist the financially distressed municipalities to develop their financial recovery plans? To what extent does that include those municipalities that were involved in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal which was of course used as an orchestrated plan to fund some politicians and political parties?
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL
AFFAIRS: Hon Chairperson, I think it is important to state that Rapid Response technical support team has been working with municipalities and assisted many of these to recover in line with the necessary requirements of the rapid response interventions that have been identified. This would include amongst others interventions with regards to improved revenue plans but also areas of improved performance with regards to the infrastructure interventions that we are utilising, MISA, as a means through which we are able to intervene in this regard.
We are working with the various provincial governments to identify in those municipalities that are impacted by the VBS saga to ensure that we are able to assist these to recover. Because one of the things we need to mitigate against this debts - whilst there could be office bearers and officials who have acted in a manner that impacts on the viability of the municipality, in the long terms, this should not be at the expense of and to the detriment of communities. So we have a collective responsibility to assist these municipalities to recover and to ensure that whilst people are held accountable that we can support them to provide the services that are so required by the communities. Thank you very much.
Question 126:
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL
AFFAIRS: Hon Chairperson, I think it is important to state in the first instance that, the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has expressed concern at the Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs for its failure to submit it's annual financial statement to the Auditor-General within the required timeframe.
To this effect, the Minister called on the leadership in the department to always ensure that they comply with the relevant
prescripts relating to the submission of annual financial statements. The department, however, was unable to submit the 2018- 19 annual financial statements to the Auditor-General within the legislative timeframe which was the end of May 2019, due to outstanding information relating to the disclosure of Community Work Programme assets. However, we submitted the 2018-19 annual financial statements at the end of June 2019. Therefore, this impacted on the ability of the Auditor-General to complete their audit of the department within the prescribed timeframe.
I think it is also important to state in response to the question that, for 2015-16 and 2016-17, the annual financial statement were provided on time. With regards to 2017-18, the annual financial statements were submitted at the end of July instead of May and the main reason remains the Community Work Programme and the last number of assets and consumables administered by the implementing agents that could not be confirmed and verified for the adjustment of the annual financial statements.
The department was also unable to submit the 2018-19 annual financial statements within the legislative timeframes which is the end of May, due to the outside information and disclosure of Community Work Programme, CWP, assets, and these as indicated
earlier, were submitted at the end of June 2019. Due to the reasons given above, the department delayed the submission of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 annual financial statements and that had an impact on the Auditor-General's ability to start and complete the audit processes within the prescribed time period.
The department is working hand in hand with National Treasury on the following: A review and monitoring of the implementation of audit action plan's technical visit; training and engagement with municipal officials; internal audit units, promoting IGRAP learning; attendance at audit steering committees and audit committees to assist in addressing the root causes of the audit findings; training of the municipal disciplinary board members; councillors serving on municipal finance committees and on Ampec. The department together with Treasury also developed a tool kit I referred to earlier, to ensure that councillors are able to undertake their responsibilities in Ampec.
Furthermore, the department assists the municipalities by institutionalising B2B Programme, post audit action plans, revenue enhancement and with the introduction of the district development model; we envisage further improvement in this regard. To a large extent I think it is important to state the point that the impact of
the Community Work Programme on the department is something that is receiving our collective intention in which both the ministry and the department, but it would be somewhat extreme to suggest that the department is dysfunctional as a result of late submission of financial statements, particularly in relation to the Community Work Programmes. Thank you very much.