The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation has acknowledged a general improvement in governance at water boards following positive audit outcomes for Umgeni Water, Magalies Water and Rand Water.

Magalies Water received a clean audit during the 2019/20 financial year, and the achievement of unqualified audit opinions by Umgeni and Rand Water was welcomed by the committee.

“Both the department and the portfolio committee committed themselves following the release of the previous financial year to strengthening oversight over the water boards to ensure good governance, which is a bedrock for delivery of quality services. We are pleased to see the results of this commitment,” said Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation chairperson Machwene Semenya.

The committee welcomed Magalies Water’s achievement of 93% of strategic targets for the 2019/20 financial year and that the board did not incur any irregular expenditure, representing adherence to good governance requirements.

Rand Water maintained its strong financial position; however, the committee voiced concerned over R183.5-million in irregular expenditure for the current financial year which represents a risk to good governance.

Meanwhile, Umgeni Water achieved 88% of strategic targets, however, the committee called for a value-added analysis to ascertain how the attainment of targets had impacted on the delivery of quality services.

The committee said it was concerned that only 55% of infrastructure development milestones were met.

Umgeni Water’s spend performance for the year was R840-million, with R549-million was spent on bulk infrastructure augmentation, expansion, upgrades and rehabilitation projects, of which R184-million, or 22%, went towards projects for rural development. The committee has urged for the achievement of greater targets.

The committee, however, welcomed the strong financial position the entity has maintained, with R4.2-billion in generated revenue, and its strengthening of the balance sheet to R10.7-billion.