The MEC for Finance, Motlalepula Rosho, in a statement says according to the Auditor-General’s (AG) Municipal Finance Management Act report for the 2018/19 financial year, these municipalities used consultants but still failed to show any improvements. 

She says this is despite the excessive amount of money used on consultants by municipalities. 

Rosho and Premier Job Mokgoro are soon set to address a planned webinar with the provincial Department of Treasury who is expected to roll out financial recovery plans for 14 targeted municipalities. These targeted municipalities are facing serious financial management and capacity challenges. 

The planned webinar is also set to focus on the cost-benefit analysis of using consultants in municipalities.

In the then report, the AG stated that: “Even when consultants were used to prepare financial statements, they were used ineffectively, as financials would not be credible because in-year preventative controls were not in place that would enable reliable and timely financial reporting, such as proper record-keeping and daily and monthly reconciliations, as evidenced by the regression of audit outcomes with a trend of disclaimed and qualified opinions."

The AG reported that this meant that municipalities paid their staff and the consultants for the same service without any value being realised, causing a waste of scarce public resources. 

Moreover, using consultants did not guarantee that the financial statements would be submitted by the legislated deadline.

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