05 December 2008

By SACN Reporter

THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has received an unqualified audit report from the Auditor-General, the first such report in the eight years of its existence.

Making the announcement, Executive Mayor Nondumiso Maphazi, ascribed the achievement to the hard work and commitment by the municipal manager, the budget and treasury directorate and all other directorates.

Maphazi hailed the report as a vindication of measures the municipality had put in place to clean up its financial accounting. The council had set up an Audit Steering Committee to manage the planning and execution of the annual audit by the Auditor-General. The committee was chaired by the Municipal Manager and included executive directors and representatives from the office of the Auditor-General.

The steering committee oversaw the implementation of the Audit Action Plan to ensure that potential areas of weaknesses in internal controls were addressed and that the municipality complied with the applicable Accounting Standards.

“The combined effect of these efforts, in addition to the oversight exercised by the Audit Committee, as well as the higher levels of vigilance of Councillors through the Oversight Committee, contributed immensely to the achievement of an unqualified audit opinion,” said Budget and Treasury Directorate Portfolio Councillor, Masalamani Odayar.

Maphazi said the audit report had now set a high standard for the municipality to attain in future.

“This has now set the standard that we want to achieve every year in the future,” Maphazi said. “We are extremely proud of this achievement and I am confident that it will be repeated for the current financial year.”

For the 2006/07 financial year, the municipality had just one item qualified by the AG, a major improvement from 2005/06 year when 17 items were qualified.

Source: Mandela Metro
www.mandelametro.gov.zac