Africa-Press – Namibia. The Municipality of Keetmanshoop was caught off guard and unable to explain how it received an adverse audit opinion from Auditor General Junias Kandjeke.
An adverse opinion for the 2020/2021 financial year indicates that an entity’s financial reports are significantly misstated and fail to present a true reflection of its financial condition.
The municipality could not provide satisfactory explanations to the National Council Standing Committee on Public Accounts and Economy regarding its poor audit outcomes.
Members of the committee expressed disappointment that local councillors chose to attend another workshop at the time of the hearing, despite the session being aimed at salvaging the municipality’s financial affairs and preventing further downgrading.
When questioned by the committee chairperson, Peter Kazongominja, acting CEO Gregorius Andries admitted that the annual financial statements were misrepresented and did not reflect the municipality’s actual financial position during the period under review.
“This has negatively impacted our performance, as commercial banks have declined to grant us loans due to the adverse audit reports we received,” Andries said.
Kazongominja added: “This committee will return to your office no later than the end of September 2025 to allow time for you to get your house in order – both administratively and politically – before we conduct another hearing on these two audit reports”.
Andries said the municipality is following the advice of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development by carrying out research and providing staff training.
He confirmed that an external consultant will be appointed to assist with the process.
“We are working on a comprehensive overhaul of the system, reviewing the current structure and planning to appoint qualified staff in key positions,” he said.
Other concerns raised during the hearing included the municipality’s failure to adopt International Public Sector Accounting Standards, its status as a going concern, given that liabilities exceeded assets during the periods under review and adjustments made to its appropriation accounts.
Discrepancies were found between the VAT reported in the financial statements and what was submitted to the NamRA.
Meanwhile, the municipality’s strategic executive for finance Desere Boois told the committee that she could not provide proper explanations.
“We have a backlog in updating financial records and statements for the past five years. However, we plan to finalise this within four months to reconcile the accounts and provide accurate answers to all the questions raised,” she said.
Committee member Sebastian Gobs expressed dissatisfaction with the responses given by the two executives.
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