Northern Cape ANC sees some good in bad audit outcome

Despite the negative outcome of the Northern Cape 2011/12 audit report, some progress has been made, the ANC in the province said.

Northern Cape African National Congress secretary Zamani Saul said the report showed improvement at the Unsombomvu and Francis Baard district municipalities.

Deputy Auditor General Kimi Makwetu released the 2011/12 consolidated report on local government audit outcomes this week.

He said the progress of municipalities and public entities towards clean audits had been slow, which was a cause for concern.

The Northern Cape report indicated audit opinions of 10 municipalities were not included for the review period.

It stated the root causes for poor audit outcomes in the Northern Cape had been ignored by those responsible.

Although none of the municipalities reported on were able to obtain a clean audit, three municipalities -- Frances Baard, Siyanda District Municipality and Kareeberg Local Municipality -- were financially unqualified.

Makwetu said these municipalities stood a reasonable chance of moving to the clean audit category should they address some issues.

Saul said the provincial co-operative governance department had already started to help municipalities in distress before the report was released.

"The interventions are ongoing in those municipalities and we expect an improvement in the next financial year," Saul said.

Earlier, Congress of the People spokesman Pakes Dikgetsi said the local government situation would not improve unless the ANC removed "cadre deployment".

"Unfortunately, the ruling party, with its policy of cadre deployment, prides narrow party political gain at the expense of clean governance," he said.