Statement on the outcomes of Municipal Finance Meeting
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Addressing the media on the state of provincial finance report, the MEC for Finance, Mr Madala Masuku said the Province recorded an employment level in the second quarter of 2013, in excess of million.
The meeting with the Finance Executives reviewed the state of financial management in Mpumalanga Province, particularly as these relates to the municipalities.
MEC Masuku implored all Members of the Mayoral Committees for Finance as well as Provincial and Municipal officials in finance, internal audit, assets and risk management units to walk the talk to improve the level of financial management in the Province.
“We meet all the times but the concerns that are often raised are that these meetings have not assisted us to arrive at the envisaged outcomes.
“The state of affairs after some of the meetings remains the same or there is regression on areas in which there was some level of improvement, said MEC Masuku.
He said if the municipal executive and officials speaks the same language as in this strategic finance management (MUNIMEC) meeting, all the times, we will turn around the situation as reported by the Auditor General about the Province.
The meeting agreed on set of interventions to ensure improvements in various areas of financial management in municipalities, backed by strategic support and enhanced hands-on assistance on issues that are critical to credibility of
financial information and also those raised in the recent audit outcomes.
Regularity of financial reporting
MEC Masuku and the Members of Mayoral Committees for Finance agreed on a proposal for phased programmes to ensure regularity of financial reporting to be submitted to the Executive Council.
The meeting endorsed a stratified schedule of interventions to assist the municipalities in critical areas of financial management performance, including on provision of hands on support by the end of September 2013. The programme
will be undertaken jointly by COGTA and Treasury and is expected to be presented to the Executive Council soon.
The meeting noted and welcomed the expansion of Provincial Information Technology Forum to include all municipalities. The inclusion of the municipalities is intended to assist the province
to address pertinent IT system and control issues that have been raised by the Auditor General in the audit reports.
The meeting expressed concern that consultants that have been appointed are not assisting the Province because municipalities are still getting audit queries on assets.
The forum supported the proposal for organisation of asset management, tailored according to resource capacity to improve uniformity of reporting on assets management;
enable the government to support skills development in the institutions and thereby reducing reliance on consultants and attendant costs to municipalities.
The Provincial Government will implement systems to assist municipalities to address issues that led to disclaimer of opinion in the Auditor General’s report. This include activating the instruments aimed
to assist the Executive to regularly monitor compliance with SCM, filing of documentation for audit purposes amongst others.
The Provincial Treasury will also commence with a process of evaluating the maturity level of municipal financial management systems and processes. The expansion of the financial
maturity model to municipalities is another step in the process of ensuring continuous improvements in financial management.
For more information, contact:
Letshela Jonas on 013 766 4323 / 079 500 0154
Issued by Communications, Department of Finance, Mpumalanga Provincial Government