Much to hide in eThekwini municipality: death threats for auditor-general team

The auditor-general’s office has taken an unprecedented decision to withdraw its audit team from the eThekwini municipality with immediate effect after its employees received death threats.

This was communicated to the municipality in a letter to deputy city manager Phillip Sithole‚ written by business executive in the AG’s office in Pietermaritzburg, Ntombifuthi Mhlongo on Monday.

In the letter‚ seen by TimesLive‚ Mhlongo wrote: “With reference to my teleconversation of this afternoon‚ please be advised that the audit team has been removed from the eThekwini municipality with immediate effect‚ as the safety of the team has been compromised.”

Mhlongo further wrote: “In the interim‚ kindly inform the Municipal Public Accounts Committee and Audit Committee of the matter as discussed and note that the AGSA will not be in the position to attend any further meetings until this matter is resolved.”

Sithole convened an urgent meeting with the AG’s office on Wednesday where it was agreed that the city’s head of security‚ Dumisani Bhengu‚ would meet with the head of security at the AG’s office to map a way forward. The matter is also now being investigated by the police.

It was reported on Friday that city manager Sipho Nzuza had to cut short an overseas trip in order to attend to the matter. He held a meeting with the AG’s office on Thursday‚ where threats were further discussed.

The mayor of eThekwini has announced that she will address the threats on Friday afternoon.

The KwaZulu-Natal department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) has also launched an investigation into the circumstances that led to the AG’s decision to stop auditing the municipality’s books.

“The KZN office of the auditor-general is the supreme audit institution in the province and it is mandated to audit all government entities‚ including municipalities‚ which are in turn obliged to submit themselves to regular audits. We cannot tolerate alleged threats that compromise this process‚” said Cogta MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube in a statement on Friday.

She said her department will work closely with both the AG’s office and the eThekwini municipality to assist in improving the audit outcomes.

“We will investigate the alleged threats that according to the auditor-general’s office jeopardised the safety of its staff at eThekwini council. The department considers itself an important stakeholder in the municipal audit process‚” said Dube-Ncube.

“We cannot have a situation where the auditor-general’s team is walking out of a municipality on security threats when we are‚ at the same time‚ working overtime to support municipalities with their audit improvement plans. The audit process requires full co-operation from municipalities and this is non-negotiable as far as we at Cogta are concerned.”

This week auditor-general Kimi Makwethu painted a bleak picture about the financial situation of the country's municipalities.

Presenting his national municipal audit report for the 2016/17 financial year‚ Makwethu said the expenditure budget for the municipal sphere in the 2016/17 was R362.13-billion. Municipalities with clean audit opinions represented R25.68-billion (7%) of this amount‚ while those with unqualified opinions with findings represented R243.82-billion.

Municipalities with qualified audit opinions made up R61.14-billion (17%) of the total budget‚ while those with adverse and disclaimed opinions represented R22.81-billion (6%). Municipalities with outstanding audits constituted R8.68-billion (2%) of the total budget.