{"id":85397,"date":"2023-06-14T12:12:01","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T12:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/?p=85397"},"modified":"2025-11-17T17:42:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:42:01","slug":"the-pursuit-of-a-clean-audit-outcome-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2023\/06\/14\/the-pursuit-of-a-clean-audit-outcome-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Going for green: The pursuit of a clean audit outcome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Only 9 of South Africa&#8217;s 257 municipalities have consistently received clean audits for at least 7 years<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The number of clean audits has dropped from 41 to 38, with only 2 of 8 metros achieving &#8216;green&#8217;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The West Coast municipality has received a clean audit every year for the past 12 years, whereas Joe Morolong and Madibeng have received the worst audit opinion 7 years in a row<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past 12 years, only nine municipalities of South Africa\u2019s 257 have had clean audit opinions every year for at least seven years.<br \/><br \/>Audit opinions, which are issued by the auditor-general, hold municipalities accountable for the transparent reporting of their financial situation and help stakeholders make decisions. A clean audit, for example, is one free of material errors, omissions and misstatements. There are five different audit opinions \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/tools.theoutlier.co.za\/municipal-audits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here are the definitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/9-clean-municipalities-1-1-800x800.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85461\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u200b\u200bOne municipality that has received a clean audit every year for the past 12 years is the West Coast District Municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>West Coast municipal manager David Joubert says good audit outcomes \u2018have a direct impact on the evaluation and assessment of an entity\u2019s credit rating\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A municipal manager works with political office bearers and administrative staff to reach a municipality&#8217;s strategic objectives and goals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018It gives prospective investors confidence to invest in a particular region or sector where sound corporate governance is critical within the institution,\u2019 says Joubert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theoutlier.co.za\/local-government\/undefined\/85200-\/qa-getting-a-clean-audit-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What 12 years of clean audits mean for the West Coast District municipality <\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The two municipalities that have scored the worst audit opinion (a disclaimed audit) every year for the past seven years are Joe Morolong in the Northern Cape and Madibeng in the North West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The financial statements of these two municipalities have been deemed so unreliable that they have had no decent documentation for decision-making processes for almost a decade.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The rest of the country<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong> <\/strong>Only 15 municipalities received the worst audit opinion in 2021\/22 compared with 26 in the previous financial year. However, fewer got clean audits \u2013 38 compared with 41.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/Summary-of-audit-results-6-800x800.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85462\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Life in SA&#8217;s metros<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 40% of the population lives in metropolitan municipalities, but only two of the country&#8217;s eight metros received a clean audit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cape Town got its first clean audit in six years<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ekurhuleni in Gauteng is the only other metro to get a clean audit this year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A clean audit may not guarantee good service delivery, but it is a good start.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/metros-1-1-800x800.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85464\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke<\/strong> pins the lack of clean metro audits on \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/opinion\/editorials\/2023-06-08-editorial-little-glory-in-local-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">instability in key positions, as well as inadequate monitoring<\/a> and review of controls relating to compliance\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote endnote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tools.theoutlier.co.za\/municipal-audits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Check out our updated audit tool<\/a> to find out how the auditor-general has rated your municipality since 2010<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Outlier Local Government focuses on issues in Johannesburg. <a href=\"https:\/\/newsletters.theoutlier.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sign up<\/a> to receive the next edition of our newsletter<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A clean audit doesn&#8217;t guarantee good service delivery, but it is a good start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,41,446,1387],"tags":[276,277,278,279,280,111,281,249,282,40,264],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-85397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-governance","category-local-government","category-news","category-the-outlier","tag-agsa","tag-audit-opinion","tag-audit-tracker","tag-auditor-general","tag-governance","tag-local-government","tag-metros","tag-municipalities","tag-service-delivery","tag-south-africa","tag-west-coast-district-municipality"],"acf":{"big_number":null,"big_number_caption":null,"big_number_link":null,"big_number_background":null,"big_number_text_colour":null,"big_number_icon":null,"big_number_wide":null,"featured_chart":null,"flourish_chart_id":null,"flourish_sub_title":null,"flourish_chart_width":null,"is_newsletter_post":null,"post_style":null,"show_on_front":null,"link_through":null,"chart_url":null,"background_colour":null,"text_colour":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86551,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85397\/revisions\/86551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85397"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=85397"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=85397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}