Deputy Speaker and hon colleagues, before I proceed, let me, with your kind permission Deputy Speaker, invite the House to join me in once again complimenting our supreme audit institution, the Auditor- General, for continuing to be the best public institution in the world; both in the developing and the developed world. [Applause.] They continue to hold the number one spot in that regard.
Now the Public Audit Act 2004 mandates the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General - which I am privileged to chair - to perform oversight on the institution. In addition, section 2.3.1 and 2 of the Act provides that the committee must assist the Auditor-General in order to ensure the independence, impartiality, dignity, and effectiveness of the Auditor- General and advise the National Assembly accordingly. To this end, and also in support of the 2014 clean audit campaign, the committee joined the road shows of the Auditor-General from 16 to 18 April, as well as 18 to 20 April 2012, on audit outcomes for the 2010-11 financial year of several municipalities in the North West province and the eThekwini Metro Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal respectively.
On these visits, the committee observed that - in support of an ultimate audit outcome of unqualified audit opinions with no findings on predetermined objectives or compliance with laws and regulations - the Auditor-General leadership in the provinces embarked on an intensified programme to enhance its visibility, with the objective of improving the effectiveness of the audit process and engaging with all role-players who could influence clean administration. To this end, the audit teams paid regular visits during the audits, and meetings were held with those charged with governance on a quarterly basis, highlighting deficiencies in controls intended to address findings raised in the previous years' audit and management reports.
The committee, having interacted with the leadership of these municipalities - including mayors, speakers, members of provincial executive councils, and other councillors - and having made numerous observations, positive and negative, contained in detail in this report, makes the following recommendations amongst others: firstly, the Auditor- General should immediately, during the audit period, bring to the attention of the committee the list of municipalities that resist to render all reasonable assistance to the Auditor-General or the authorised auditor performing the audit to enable them to complete the audit within the applicable time frames as prescribed by the Public Audit Act; secondly, the Auditor-General should promptly notify the committee when a municipality defaults on payment of audit fees; and, thirdly, the Auditor-General should charge interest on any municipality's account not paid within 30 days of the date of the account at the rate prescribed by legislation.
The SA Local Government Association, Salga, and the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, should assist the municipalities in ensuring that administrative systems and the information necessary to prepare budgets - for example, Integrated Development Plans,IDPs - are in place. Municipal accounting officers should ensure that revenue and expenditure are properly recorded and monitored to ease audit processes. Municipalities should ensure that strengthening corporate governance is a key managerial responsibility to ensure sustainability and to augment corporate value as one of the missions entrusted to management by the citizens to promote clean governance and achieve clean audits in 2014.
I would like to commend this report to the House on behalf of the ANC and I think the committee as a whole. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
There was no debate.