Ugu District gets 100% report card from Auditor General

For immediate release 10 DECEMBER 2009

The family of municipalities in the Ugu district welcomes with excitement the announcement made by the Auditor General on the state of the municipal books for the financial year ending 30 June 2009. Last week Tuesday, the Office of the Auditor General announced that all local municipalities in the Ugu district, including the district municipality, received an unqualified audit report for the period indicated hereabove. Ugu District is the only district in the province to get 100% unqualified reports. This is the first time that such an achievement has been made and for us it's a culmination of a clear governance strategy that we, as a collective in the family, have been working on over the years. We also feel vindicated, as a district, as we have indicated that in respect of Ezinqoleni, which was the only municipality that didn't receive a positive report card in the previous report by the Auditor General, we are busy with various interventions that will turn things around. This has since happened and we look forward to ensuring that it continues on this trend. The Audit Report reflects the realisation by all responsible leaders of our municipalities that we must account for each and every cent of taxpayer's money that we spend. Recently, all of us as leaders of municipalities attended the launch of operation Clean Audit, an initiative by the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, which is aimed at improving the quality of management, accountability for all public funds. This initiative is also part of the turn around strategy for local government in the country and we are pleased that already we are beginning to show positive results in this regard. While we welcome the Audit Report as presented, we are mindful of the challenges that our municipalities face, in other areas of service delivery and overall performance. As responsible leaders, we are hard at work to find solutions to these challenges and as part of the turn around strategies that we are in the process of developing, we will be making these public so that our communities and relevant stakeholders can make their inputs. We call on the public to strengthen their public participation responsibility so that working together we can do more to develop our local municipalities and ultimately the entire Ugu district.

ISSUED BY: MAYORS OF THE UGU DISTRICT FAMILY OF MUNICIPALITIES For more information and media queries contact: Brian Fikani Dube Mobile: 079 525 7177 Email:brian.dube@ugu.org.za