For the fourth year running, the Western Cape Government has totally nailed an annual audit. An impressive 100% clean audit has been achieved throughout the board, ranking the province as the most successful in the recent undertaking.
The audit, conducted by the Auditor-General, is hardly a light endeavour. A total of 30 local municipalities bared their books during an interesting time in our country’s democracy. These national results point to a solid victory for the Western Cape, with 22 out of the province’s 30 municipalities having been awarded clean audits, while 12 out of 13 departments also scored flawlessly.
Why is this good news for us?
What this means is transparency and a lot of it. Local Finance MEC Ivan Meyer has been quoted as saying that this is a clear indication of taxpayer’s money being well spent. It seems that funds are being allocated to the right places with no backhanding ‘oopsies’ taking place during that process. Furthermore, the scrutinous audit has revealed that fraud and corruption are virtually non-existent within our larger municipal range, at the very least a triumph for those municipalities awarded full marks.
It wasn’t an absolute clean-sweep and clearly, there still exists room for improvement. Every rand needs to be accounted for. But this is definitely a positive step in the right direction for a province that continues to raise the bar with service delivery.
Photography Unsplash