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·      The Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality in Burgersfort obtained an unqualified audit opinion ·      Municipalities all over the country spend R1.47bn on consultants ·      Limpopo and North-West topped the number of municipalities relying on consultants and spent R848.85 million

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Sizwe sama Yende

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A Limpopo municipality has improved its audit findings even though it had weaned itself from hiring external consultants to prepare its financial statements.

Auditor-general, Tsakani Maluleke, has been sharply raising a concern about most municipalities using consultants but still failing to improve.

Municipalities spent R1.47 billion in consultants in the 2023/24 financial year to prepare their annual financial statements, VAT returns and fix asset registers.

The Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality in Burgersfort was among those that relied on consultants. In the 2023/24 financial year, the municipality maintained its unqualified audit opinion for the third year in a row.

Mayor Eddie Maila said that his municipality had once again demonstrated its commitment to financial prudence, administrative excellence, and clean governance.

Maila said that the continuing achievement reflected strengthened internal controls, improved financial reporting, and disciplined compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

“This unqualified opinion carries even greater weight because our own officials prepared the AFS without relying on external consultants. It demonstrates the growing capacity of our administration, and confirms that FTLM is moving firmly toward operational excellence and institutional maturity,” he said.

“An unqualified audit opinion is not the destination — it is a milestone. We remain committed to reaching a Clean Audit by tightening systems, enhancing oversight, and ensuring that every rand works for our communities.”

The municipality also recorded a 60% reduction in audit findings, demonstrating significant progress in tightening internal systems, addressing audit recommendations, and strengthening consequence management.

“What makes this year’s accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact that, for the first time in the history of the municipality, the Annual Financial Statements (AFS) were prepared entirely in-house without reliance on external consultants. The municipality’s internal finance team successfully led the process, showcasing improved institutional capacity, technical proficiency, and financial management maturity,” Maila said.

Maila said that the focus was now on achieving a clean audit. “We will continue refining internal controls, improving service delivery accountability and building on this momentum as it works toward achieving a Clean Audit Outcome.”

Maluleke has indicated that 130 municipalities used consultants but still submitted flawed financial statements.

She noted that the core problem of hiring external consultants stemmed from a lack of skills and vacancies in municipal finance departments.

“Using financial reporting consultants has become a permanent solution for many municipalities – most notably in Limpopo and North West. Municipalities did not effectively use these expensive resources, which had a price tag of R848.85 million in 2023/24, and they had little impact at the 101 municipalities where we identified material misstatements in the areas of the consultants’ work,” Maluleke said.

“We included a similar message on the ineffective use financial reporting consultants in our 2013/14 general report – little has changed in the decade since then.”