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George awarded Clean Audit


Issued George Municipality, 1 February 2022 for immediate release

Executive Mayor Leon Van Wyk announced in Ordinary Council yesterday, 31 January 2022 that George Municipality has received an unqualified audit opinion with no findings on the annual performance report for the year ended 30 June 2021. This is what is known as a “clean audit report”.

Ald Van Wyk offered his congratulations to the Acting Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz, the Chief Financial Officer, Mr Riaan du Plessis, the Finance team, Internal Audit and all the Directorates who have put in a huge effort over the last few weeks, months and year to ensure that this milestone was achieved.

The Auditor-General commended the management for the audit outcome of the municipality which improved. “The outcome in the prior year was an unqualified audit opinion with findings on predetermined objectives which improved to unqualified opinion with no findings. This is mainly attributable to the efforts made by management to improve controls around indigent debtors and the overall improvement of the control environment at the municipality.”

Portfolio Councillor for Finance, Dirk Wessels congratulated the entire administration on the achievement. “This clean audit highlights to the public of George, that the Council and the municipality are working with care with taxpayer’s funds. George is one of the few financially stable municipalities in South Africa.”

Acting Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz was thrilled with the outcome and lauded the immense team effort involved. “The improvement on the previous year’s audit outcome is a fitting reward for the Administration’s hard work and commitment to good governance, clean administration and ensuring that George Municipality is financially sustainable.”

This favourable audit result was a result of a huge team effort by the Municipality and was guided by the exceptional leadership of the acting Municipal Manager said CFO, Riaan Du Plessis. “The result confirms the efforts made by the municipality’s officials and management to address the findings raised by the Auditor-General in the prior year reports. The commitment and efforts of our staff are acknowledged and greatly appreciated.

Despite this excellent result, there remain further improvements that will be made to continue our drive to modernise the municipality’s administration and to ensure we optimise our ability to effectively deliver services. This result is encouraging and motivates the officials to continue in their efforts to establish George as the leading secondary city.”