France Nyaka

The mayor of Gert Sibande district municipality, Kgotso ­Motloung, could not hold back his tears of excitement when his municipality received a clean audit report last week.

Auditor-general ­Terence Nombembe presented ­Motloung with the outcome of the audit after the Gert Sibande municipality presented up-to-date financial reports that showed compliance with ­supply chain regulations.

Over the past years, the municipality had been ­receiving unqualified audit reports.

The Gert Sibande municipality consists of seven local municipalities including Govan Mbeki, Msukalikwa, Mkhondo, Pixley Ka Seme, Dipaleseng, Lekwa and Albert Luthuli.

Speaking to The New Age on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the cooperative governance and traditional affairs department, Simphiwe Kunene, said another three municipalities in the province received clean audits. These were Victor Khanye and Steve Tshwete local municipalities and the Ehlanzeni district municipality.

Kunene said the provincial government aimed to have all the municipalities receiving clean audits by 2014. To this end, it had launched Operation Clean Audit 2014.

“We are extremely excited about the remarkable results of the Operation Clean Audit 2014,” Kunene said. “The office of MEC Madala Masuku is proud of the sterling work done by our four municipalities.

“We worked hard with the four (that received clean audits) so they could produce the positive results.”

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