Oudtshoorn, 05 December 2016 – Oudtshoorn Municipality has received a qualified Audit opinion for the 2015/2016 financial year, an improvement from an adverse opinion received in the prior financial year.
The Executive Mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn, Aldm Colan Sylvester has congratulated the municipality for the improvement. “This progression is welcome, and can be attributed to Intervention team since the bigger portion of the financial year was under the auspices of the administration.”
“We are fortunate that the Municipality managed to retain some of the members of the Intervention team that contributed to the improvement.”
The current acting municipal manager, Mr. Allen Paulse was seconded from Bitou Municipality to Oudtshoorn by the Western Cape Provincial Government as part of the Intervention which was headed by the Administrator, Mr. Kam Chetty. The intervention team also consisted of Felix Lotter, the current acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) also seconded from Bitou Municipality which has scooped three consecutive clean audits for the past financial years, Chris Koch from the Western Cape Department of Local Government and Sims Shehaam.
“Our target is to be amongst the municipalities that have received clean audits. We are implementing the financial recovery plan, meticulously to place Oudtshoorn on a sustainable footing, which will result in a financially stable municipality that delivers services in an effective and efficient manner to its communities,” Aldm Sylvester added.
The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) has awarded clean audits to 23 out of 30 Western Cape Municipalities for 2015/16. This is highlighted in the AGSA’s Provisional Audit Report on Western Cape Municipalities.
In a media statement issued over the past weekend, the Western Cape Minister of Finance Ivan Meyer has congratulated Oudtshoorn for its improvement as well as the 23 Western Cape municipalities for their diligent leadership and good financial governance.
Minister Meyer stressed that the vision of good financial governance remains the springboard to quality service delivery communities in the Western Cape.
The media release furthermore states that the Western Cape MEC of Local Government, Anton Bredell was equally pleased with the audit outcomes.
“We believe that good financial governance translates into better service delivery to our people. We are investing all our energy into making this goal a reality,” said Minister Bredell.
The Oudtshoorn Municipality has already received its audit report from the Auditor-General and would be tabled before Council early next year.