Auditor-General says only 16% of municipalities can be trusted to spend public funds effectively [SOUND]

# Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke says the state of financial and performance management disciplines in local government leaves much to be desired. Local government has lost 17.6-billion-rand over the past three years to fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The Auditor-General found that only 41 out of 257 councils received a clean audit in the 2023/2024 financial year. Maluleki told Parliament’s Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs committee that only 16-percent of municipalities can be trusted to spend public funds effectively: