the arena of progressive thought

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ZIWAPHI • VOL 3 NO 25 • 18 DEC 2009 - 14 JAN 2010

NELSPRUIT

The Mpumalanga government will scale down its use of consultants and engage the Hawks to fight corruption and maladministration in municipalities as part of its efforts to achieve unqualified audit reports by 2014.

During the launch of Operation Clean Audit 2014 in Nelspruit on Tuesday, the MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs, Norman Mokoena, said the province would minimise the use of consultants.

“The overuse of consultants has a negative effect on our audit reports because some of these consultants are corrupt and fail to account properly. Because we need to do the jobs given to consultants internally, it is very important to promote internal capacity within our departments,” said Mokoena.

Mokoena said the Hawks would be welcomed in Mpumalanga to root out corrupt government officials.

“It is a concern that reports by the auditor-general continue to spell out queries relating to ineffective and inefficient institutions and structures, and poor performance by officials, especially as far as financial mismanagement is concerned,” he said.

Mokoena said corruption in the government negatively affected service delivery plans in general and co-operative governance in particular.

The national head of Operation Clean Audit 2014, Batandwa Siswana, said he expected the province to submit a draft plan of how it would tackle the project during a meeting in Pretoria on Wednesday and Thursday.

“I would like to agree with MEC Mokoena that some municipalities and government departments keep on using underperforming consultants who compromise good governance. It makes one wonder whether they have a corrupt relationship with government officials,” said Siswana.

“Municipal officials must also not focus on politics but on administration and the technical aspects of their jobs. They must leave politics to the politicians,” he warned.

According to Siswana, the operation aims to deliver unqualified audit opinions for 60% of provincial departments and municipalities by 2012.

“By 2013 we want to achieve unqualified audits for 75% of our municipalities and government departments, and by 2014 all 283 municipalities in South Africa as well as all the provincial departments must have unqualified audit opinions with no matters,” he said.

The chairperson of the South African Local Government Association in Mpumalanga, Speedy Mashilo, blamed qualified audit reports on a lack of political oversight and leadership within municipalities.

“There is corruption and maladministration in our municipalities and some of our political leaders are turning a blind eye to it. We need to know that corruption is the enemy of our revolution, and we need to act against it,” Mashilo said.

Officials from Mpumalanga’s 18 local and three district municipalities, as well as 11 government departments, all signed a pledge to commit themselves to Operation Clean Audit 2014.