The City of Ekurhuleni scooped two awards for excellence governance during the 2nd Annual South African Local Government Association (SALGA) Municipal Audit Awards held in Johannesburg on Friday.
The City walked away with the award for Reducing Unauthorised, Irregular, Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure, and also Implementing Consequence Management in the 2023/24 financial year.
“We are extremely excited by the achievements as they demonstrate our continued commitment to run a clean and accountable institution,” says City Manager Dr Imogen Mashazi. “A lot of work goes into financial prudence, and we are very fortunate to have a team that understands that.”
The city manager again emphasised that the municipality ‘remains resolute to always revisit our systems and controls to ensure that we run a tight ship that is guided by the Municipal Finance Management Act among other legislation’. “Such recognition also motivates us to do more.”
The Salga Awards were introduced to recognize and celebrate municipalities in Gauteng for their exemplary financial management and adherence to the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
Last year the City scooped four Awards for Excellent Governance at the Inaugural SALGA Municipal Audit Awards. The city walked away with two first-place certificates for the 2021/22 financial year clean audit outcome and for good record keeping – a critical process in the audit purposes and measuring service delivery achievements. The City then got a second-place award for capital expenditure on the allocated budget, and another second place for revenue collection and management.
Salga states that annual awards have been introduced to promote accountability and consequence management, rewarding excellence while addressing mediocrity and maladministration in local authorities.