The revolving door of acting city managers in municipalities is one of the leading causes of delayed implementation of the auditor-general’s recommendations on material irregularities.
The 2023/2024 financial statements revealed 446 material irregularities related to compliance breaches and suspected fraud across municipalities.
This resulted in material losses totalling R8.74bn.
On Monday, auditor-general material irregularities deputy head Thabelo Khangale said the issue of acting city managers was a major reason municipalities failed to respond effectively to audit outcomes.
Khangale was talking on the auditor-general’s powers to act on delinquent municipalities during a workshop hosted by the SA National Editors Forum at the Boardwalk in Gqeberha.
“The risk of someone who is acting is that they never take full accountability because they know they will not be there in the future,” he said.
“Unfortunately, some of the instability can also be created by legislative provisions.
“The Municipal Finance Management Act tries to prevent a situation where you have, as an example, 30 managers, with a provision which says for instance you cannot act for more than three months, the whole idea being to have permanent people.
“However, when that does not happen there can be a situation where multiple people act for a long time.”
The forum invited the auditor-general’s office to provide insight into its expanded powers aimed at strengthening executive accountability.
In certain cases, this could include issuing a certificate of debt to the accounting officer.
Since the start of the 2024/2025 financial year, Nelson Mandela Bay has had three acting city managers.
The Herald
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