Gauteng MEC hopes to release Joburg audit outcomes by Sunday

Gauteng MEC of economic development,Lebohang Maile,said the audit outcomes of the cities ofJoburgand Ekurhuleni will be released by Sunday if all discussions go well. Addressing the media during the medium-term budget lock-up, Maile said there is a dispute at national level involving the auditor-general over the reports. This is after Sowetan’s sister publication, Business Day, reported that the city of gold had re-emphasised its secure financial footing despite the delay in the audit reports.

The city moved to reassure investors that the dispute with the auditor-general over audited financial statements has no bearing on its ability to meet financial obligations. This comes after the two municipalities missed the deadline to submit the outcomes to the JSE on February 28. TheJSE last month warnedit would suspend the bonds of the Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Cape Town metros if they failed to submit audited financial statements.

Andre Visser, director: issuer regulation at the JSE, said: “In terms of the debt and specialist securities listings requirements, if a municipality does not publish its financial results within eight months of its financial year-end, its listing may be subject to suspension.” Maile said they have been in close communication with the city on this problem. “One of the things we are considering is releasing the audit outcomes of municipalities. If everything goes well, we hope to brief on that this Sunday.

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“The only reason I say ‘if everything goes well’, is because there is a dispute involving the auditor-general at the national level, and we are waiting for that process to be resolved,” he said. President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged the dire financial distress of many municipalities driven by weak revenue collection, poor management and substantial service delivery backlogs. Maile said they had also noted comments made by finance minister Enoch Godongwana when he raised concerns about themunicipality’s [Joburg] financial management.

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