This, as the municipality is expected to hold a Special Council Sitting to consider the budget for the 2020/21 financial year. The sitting, set to resume at 16:30, comes just days after OFM News reported that the metro was amongst  municipalities listed as those that have been pointed out in the latest Auditor-General report as having incurred high irregular expenditure. Presenting the local government audit outcomes for the 2018/19 financial year before the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) last week, Deputy Auditor-General Tsakane Ratsela indicated that this municipality ranks amongst the top five municipalities with high irregular expenditure in the last three years.

The metro particularly made national headlines after it become the first metropolitan to be placed under administration and downgraded twice by Moody's credit ratings. 

Ratsela further indicated that overall, there is a deliberate lack of accountability by the political and administrative municipal leadership in the Free State.

She said the financial health of the province has deteriorated over the years with over 80% of municipalities in the province now in a dire financial state. 

Coupled with concerns over the metro, Ratsela further painted a bleak picture when she told the House that municipalities in the province have not only recorded high irregular expenditure exceeding a billion, but combined their poor financial controls were also impacting the entire country negatively as some owe water boards billions in addition to their shocking Eskom debts.

OFM News