This is according to the MEC for Finance, Gadija Brown, who discussed possible plans to develop the economy at the Free State Department of Finance's two-day research colloquium Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein on Wednesday. Responding to OFM News’ questions about the poor state of municipalities and lack of governance, Brown outlined that all Free State municipalities require urgent attention in order to improve their standards and audit outcomes. She confirmed that a number of them, including the infamous Maluti-A-Phofung, are still under administration for these reasons and various others. Coupled with the recent downgrade of Mangaung Metro by Moody’s, Brown confirmed that there are financial management issues that need to be resolved as well as back to basics matters which relates specifically to service delivery issues that needs to be attended to.

“We have to understand that it is imperative that we turn around the situation of our municipalities to see the economy of the Free State flourish a lot more rapidly and a lot more sustainably.”

Acting Premier, William Bulwane, added that questions regarding lack of governance and instability at municipalities require the provincial government to ensure that the “right people” are hired in the “right positions”.

Bulwane further went as far as to make an example of an Eastern Cape municipality that had allegedly appointed a teacher in a position of a Technical Director, to indicate the implications that the lack of proper governance could have on the ground.

It was revealed on Tuesday during a sitting with the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) that the state of local governance has become questionable in the Free State when the Auditor-General (AG) presented a damning report. According to the AG there is a total collapse of control measures in the province, coupled with escalating debts, high vacancies levels, and irregular and wasteful expenditures.

The AG further flagged several accountability failures including a breakdown in internal controls, non-existent oversight by all assurance providers and late or non-submission of financial statements.

Irregular expenditure was also highlighted as a challenge that had increased from R 677 million to R913 million, while municipal Eskom debt has increased to R9.8 billion.

OFM News