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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Article

Open Access

Municipal Audit Outcomes: Toward Collective Management and Intervention Strategies in the Free State Province

Author(s)

Beaula M. Kruger, Cornelis J. Van Rooyen

Full-Text PDF Download XML 588 Views

DOI:10.17265/1548-6591/2016.03.003

Affiliation(s)

Free State Provincial Legislature, Free State, South Africa

ABSTRACT

The Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act No. 56 of 2003 provided guidelines/framework for sound and sustainable management of the financial affairs of municipalities and other institutions in local sphere of government. In addition, the Free State Provincial Legislature Standing Committee of Public Accounts provided oversight over the Executive Committee and Local Government on public spending, however, there remained to be financial challenges persisting in South African municipalities. In response to this, Operation Clean Audit was launched in 2009 in the South African Parliament and they expected 100% clean audit status from local governments by 2014. Despite their expectation, 2014 was a year where the Free State government municipalities faced several challenges. The definition of a clean audit report, according to the Auditor General, is unqualified audit outcome without findings on compliance and performance information. Departing from this definition, no municipality or municipal entity in the Free State province achieved a clean audit opinion during the 2013/2014 financial year.

KEYWORDS

public financial management, oversight, accountability, good governance

Cite this paper

Journal of US-China Public Administration, March 2016, Vol. 13, No. 3, 166-172

References

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