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CORRUPTION NEWS

Poor planning for Covid-19 relief funds left municipalities vulnerable to fraud

By Kwazi Dlamini  Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke continues to raise concerns with the way local governments have handled the Covid-19 relief funds. Maluleke released the third special audit report on Covid-19 related initiatives, together with the 2019/20 Municipal Finance Management Act report – which we cover in an upcoming article – and 43 municipalities were put under the microscope for several reasons.  They include municipalities which contributed the highest amount for irregular Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

SIU on the trail of govt officials abusing Covid-19 procurement

On Friday 5 February the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) released a report on its finalised investigations into ‘the procurement of, or contracting for, goods, works and services, including the construction, refurbishment, leasing, occupation and use of immovable property, during, or in respect of the National State of Disaster …’ The investigation was established in terms Read more >

INVESTIGATION

Mnquma Local Municipality – a failure of governance

By Kwazi Dlamini Corruption-ridden Mnquma Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, together with its district municipality, Amathole, seems to be in tatters. Mnquma is off the radar – it cannot be reached by the usual forms of communication, while e-mail addresses provided on the website are unresponsive. The telephone number, also provided on their website Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Lack of accountability shows in MFMA audit results

Released in Parliament last week by auditor-general (AG) Kimi Makwetu, the 2016-2017 local government audit results present a bleak picture. The AG attributes the overall deterioration in local municipality audit results and lack of compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) to advice and warnings that were largely not heeded. Part one of our Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

MFMA: improvements, but municipalities still have work

The auditor-general’s (AG) latest report on the financial performance of municipalities, released last week, shows a marginal improvement for 2015/16, but overall the local government had failed to maintain the promising five-year momentum – gained in the years 2010/11 to 2014/15 – that he reported on last year. At a briefing on 21 June, AG Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Local government in South Africa – part 5, finances

The second-last article in our local government series tackles the issue of finances. Funding from the national government is essential for the running of municipal administrations as well as the delivery of services to their communities. There are regulations that prescribe how the finances of municipalities should be run Municipalities are required to provide services Read more >