REFILWE MEKOA
Local municipalities will receive training on how to manage in order not to get fruitless and wasteful expenditure as audit outcomes.
According to Free State Treasury MEC Elzabe Rockman, they are in an advanced stage of clearing out irregular and unauthorised expenditures that municipalities received, by holding extensive programmes. Rockman said they don’t run the finances of municipalities but only have an oversight role.
“I think municipalities now are beginning to have a clearer understanding on how to the association for certified fraud examiners can help. So, partly it is a capacity building exicise but also raising awareness on what to look for. We must be more preventative to make sure that the internal control processes is strong enough,” she said.
Rockman added that it won’t be an overnight process for municipalities to end up managing their finances accordingly.
“The more pressure we put on municipalities, the more the political leadership and municipal management insist that employees do the right thing and follow rightful procedures. We are also bringing in municipalities in our fraud awareness sessions where previously it was only held in Bloemfontein and only governmental departments where involved,” added Rockman.
