Abstract:
Ethics, oversight and accountability forms part of the founding principles
of public administration which needs to be espoused and practice by
the leadership and officials in South African public sector of which local
sphere of government cannot be excluded. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereafter refers to as the Constitution,
1996) set out the constitutional democratic values and principles that
require all political and public officials (functionaries) to behave in an
ethical and accountable manner. The Local Government: Municipal
Financial Management Act, (Act 56 of 2003) (hereafter refers to as the
MFMA, 2003) compels municipalities to establish internal Audit Units
and Audit Committees to promote control, ethics and accountability in
the management of municipal financial affairs. Section 79 of the Local
Government: Municipal Structures Act (Act 117 of 1998) provides for
the establishment of Municipal Public Accounts Committees (MPACs)
responsible to exercise oversight on behalf of the municipal council.
Despite of these, the recent Auditor-General General Report on local
government audit outcomes of 2018-2019 confirms that there is continued
breakdown in internal controls due to poor leadership responses towards
improving accountability, capacity and stability in municipalities in the
Free State province (AGSA 2020:10). The Auditor-General further
cautioned that municipalities in the Free State province will not be able
to continue on the current downward spiral of financial maladministration
as their financial performance has continuously deteriorated over the last
five years, as a result of this 80% of municipalities are now in a vulnerable
financial position (AGSA 2020:39). The article provides a critical
overview of the current oversight and accountable challenges related
to financial management of municipalities in the Free State province. It
is argued in the article that there is an interconnection between ethics,
oversight and accountability. It is further argued that the lack of municipal
financial oversight and accountability encourages, unethical behaviour of
municipal functionaries (political and administrative municipal officials),
that subsequently lead to a culture of limited or no consequences which
in turn harms public trust in local government.
