George achieves another Clean Audit
The Auditor-General advised late last week that a clean audit for 2021/22 has been achieved by George Municipality. Chief Financial Officer, Riaan Du Plessis expressed his gratitude for the results and confirmed that this is testament to the hard work being put in by the administration to continuously improve service delivery whilst also maintaining the highest quality in our administrative processes.
“There remain further improvements to be made to continue our drive to modernise the municipality’s administration, but we are confident that the leadership and guidance of the Executive Mayor and Municipal Manager will direct us in the way forward, just as it did during the past financial year. The commitment and exceptional effort by our staff is inspirational and sets a sure foundation for us from which to grow George Municipality to be the best intermediate city in the South Africa,” he said.
Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz noted that the management team is working hard to create a performance-driven municipality and improve service delivery. “This Auditor-General report acknowledged the great strides which the municipality has made over the past two years and specifically commended the implementation of consequence management to ensure officials do their work diligently and efficiently. Thank you to the management team and all officials involved for the commitment and hard work to achieve a clean audit, an outcome which very few municipalities achieve. We are committed to clean governance and will strive to continue to improve on systems and processes.”
Ald Leon Van Wyk offered his congratulations and expressed his thanks and appreciation to the Municipal Manager, CFO, Finance team, Directors and officials who have all contributed to this team effort. “During the past year we have worked towards the modernisation of systems while also tackling some major improvements in infrastructure and services as part of the turnaround. The achievement of a clean audit is therefore something special. The Clean Audit also cements access to additional Grant opportunities that we are applying for, that will benefit the broader George community and especially those areas requiring improvements.”
Portfolio Councillor for Finance, Dirk Wessels said that he was enormously proud to be a part of this team. “As MMC I am delighted with the audit outcome, it shows the municipality is on the right trajectory in the quest to be the best municipality in the country. I would like to thank the administration for the amazing work undertaken in difficult circumstances.”
Definitions:
Qualified Opinion – The financial statements contain material misstatements in specific amounts, or there is insufficient evidence for us to conclude that specific amounts included in the financial statements are not materially misstated.
Unqualified Opinion- The financial statements contain no material misstatements. Unless the Auditor-General expresses a “clean audit outcome”, findings have been raised on either reporting on predetermined objectives or non-compliance with legislation, or both these aspects.
Clean Audit – The financial statements are free from material misstatements (in other words, a financially unqualified audit opinion) and there are no material findings on reporting on performance objectives or non-compliance with legislation.
Issued by George Municipal Communications Department
Office of the Municipal Manager