eThekwini Municipality's Public Accounts Committee reports a significant decrease in audit findings, reflecting improved governance.
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The eThekwini Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) noted a positive trend in audit findings reported by the Auditor-General for the 2024/25 financial year.
The municipality's Finance Portfolio Committee (FPC) received a report on the progress made on internal and external audit findings as of December 21, 2025.
The eThekwini Municipality’s Audit Risk and Advisory Services (EMARAS) is also working in pursuit of effective leadership and good governance, including sound and clean financial administration.
The Deputy Chairperson of MPAC, Councillor Conrad Dlamini, stated that the audit findings decreased from 20 in the previous financial year to 13 in 2024/25.
He said this reflected improved governance, strengthened oversight, and a growing commitment to accountability and compliance with regulatory requirements.
“This demonstrates that corrective actions implemented by the municipality are yielding positive results, contributing to a more robust control environment. It lays a strong foundation for improved financial management, service delivery, and overall organisational performance,” he said.
According to Dlamini, key improvements include clearer assignment of responsibilities, increased responsiveness by management to both internal and external audit recommendations, and enhanced monitoring of internal controls.
“In line with the Auditor-General’s recommendation to address unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure decisively, the committee also considered several of these matters.”
Dlamini said that following a detailed review and motivation, MPAC supported the write-off of certain amounts relating to the Galleria Mall and Musgrave libraries, Disaster Management, Parks and Recreation, and roads and Infrastructure management directorates.
These write-offs remain subject to approval by the council.
A report to the FPC stated that 87 of the 195 (45%) issues raised by an internal audit had been resolved, compared to 65 of the 174 (37%) issues raised in September 2025.
The report added that the improvement in the number of items resolved is due to an increase in meetings and engagements held with internal audit, and an increase in the submission of a portfolio of evidence.
However, the municipal management team is still busy with the resolution of the 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) findings.
As of December 31, 2025, 49 of 77 (64%) issues of the 2023/24 AGSA findings were resolved. Twenty-eight of 77 (36%) issues from the 2023/24 AGSA findings remained in progress.
This compares to the September 30, 2025, FPC report, where 38 of the 77 (49%) 2023/24 AGSA findings were resolved, while 39 of the 77 (51%) from the 2023/24 AGSA findings remained in progress.
The 2024/25 AGSA findings were presented to management in December 2025 and remained in progress.
The report stated that management is working to address all issues that remain unresolved, and also prioritising internal audit and internal control matters older than 180 days.
The internal auditor recommended that the administrative leadership of the city remain concerned about the existence of long-standing open issues.
“We commit to strengthening processes to ensure that audit issues are resolved on a timely basis, that risks posed by these open issues are mitigated, and that there is a culture of accountability by line management for all open audit issues,” the municipality stated.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za