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Call for action on failed audits

Johannesburg - Opposition parties, unions and civic organisations have called for immediate action to fight underperformance in municipalities.

The demands come after Auditor-General Terence Nombembe released a report on the finances of local government for 2010/2011.

The report revealed that only 5% of municipalities received clean audits, while none of the metros received clean audits.

It showed that procurement to the value of R3.5bn could not be audited because the required information was not available.

Only 5% of Gauteng local government entities received a clean audit and the province had R781m in irregular expenditure.

"The MEC for local government and housing Ntombi Mekgwe must institute a central provincial blacklist to prevent companies with a bad reputation from conducting any business with municipalities," the Democratic Alliance's Fred Nel said in a statement.

He said it was a problem when officials and politicians benefit from public money.

"These companies should be blacklisted to prevent any further business with municipalities and government departments."

The Inkatha Freedom Party blamed poor performance by municipalities on the ANC.

"The problems besetting the country are the direct result of the ruling party's thinking, which placed ideological correctness above quality and professionalism," said spokesperson Joshua Mazibuko in a statement.

The United Association of South Africa (Uasa) said government should monitor and educate municipal officers to lower corruption and non-performance.

"Mechanisms need to be put in place to educate state employees about these matters, in order to lower the levels of corruption and non-performance," the trade union said.

The SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) said the recent audit report was the result of officials not paying attention to the AG's management letters during the audit process.

"We call upon mandated political principals and managerial heads to ensure that mediocrity is no longer tolerated, at all levels in the administration of our municipalities," Sanco said.

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