On financial management, the AG proposed that the leadership should consider applying section 171 of the Municipal Financial Management Act, Number 56 of 2003 (MFMA). This section provides disciplinary proceedings in case of financial misconduct by municipal officials. The AG stated that the CFOs need to ensure that basic accounting principles are implemented at each municipality in order to mitigate the high incidence of disclaimer of opinion and qualified opinions and improve basic financial management within municipalities. The AG highlighted a critical process of preparing monthly trial balances and validating the information included in the trial balance to supporting documentation and supporting schedules. The AG argued that this monthly process must be supported by the daily and weekly review processes inclusive of confirming the correct application of the relevant accounting policies. The AG explained that performing and reviewing the required reconciliations (such as bank, debtors, asset and creditors reconciliations) and relating this information to the capital and current budget as approved by council is crucial. The AG reported to the Committees that decisive leadership intervention is required to ensure proper record keeping and records management, namely: the documents that are supporting the financial statements must be properly filed and easily retrievable -that is perpetuating the culture of accountability.