MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Mossel Bay Municipality has again received a well-deserved clean audit report.
The audit report for the financial year ending 30 June 2020 has been issued.
News of the municipality’s clean financial audit could certainly not have been a better welcome for the newly-appointed chief financial officer, Orlando Fredericks, who reported for his first day of duty on 1 March.
Fredericks has more than 19 years' experience in the office of the Auditor-General. His knowledge of financial management, public sector accounting and compliance equips him well for the position of CFO in the municipality.
The clean audit outcome gives the residents of Mossel Bay the comfort that the administration of the municipality is in good hands, with sound financial management at its core, having proper internal controls and doing the basics right. Therefore, the municipality can focus its attention on service delivery as a priority.
The remarkable achievement was obtained despite the challenges brought by Covid-19.
Not only has the pandemic caused havoc in the health sector, but tremendous obstacles in the preparations of the annual financial statements and performance information. Certain issues, such as working from home, getting all the source documents and finalisation of reports according to the new normal were a huge challenge.
Regardless, there were no errant findings relating to Supply Chain Management processes. The Special Investigating Unit scrutinised all the Covid-19 related transactions for fraud, including the procurement and distribution of food parcels and could not find faults in the procedures nor the related processes.
The municipality achieved the clean audit status by not receiving any material findings on the annual financial statements, performance management results, and legislative compliance matters. Mossel Bay Municipality is the only B-Municipality that insists on performance management for all levels of employees.
For the past two years, the late submission on 2018 by 12 days, and the two supply chain management matters relating to local content and subcontracting cost the municipality its clean audit status. Effective control measures were put into practice to ensure the previous adverse findings were not repeated.
The latest clean audit award is the seventh Mossel Bay Municipality has received in nine years. Since 2017, Mossel Bay Municipality has achieved six consecutive clean audits.
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