The Auditor General of South Africa (Agsa) has awarded clean audits to 23 of 30 Western Cape municipalities for 2015/16, the Western Cape government said on Sunday.

This was highlighted in the Agsa's provisional audit report on Western Cape municipalities, and was an improvement from the 22 municipalities that achieved a clean audit in the previous financial year, the provincial government said in a statement.

Western Cape finance MEC Ivan Meyer congratulated the officials within the 23 municipalities for their diligent leadership and good financial governance. “I am equally pleased that a further five municipalities and one municipal entity achieved unqualified audits with findings. This is only a notch below the clean audit qualification,” he said.

Western Cape local government MEC Anton Bredell was equally pleased with the audit outcomes. “We are thrilled with the progress that we have made in moving more municipalities and entities towards clean and unqualified audits. This reflects the hard work put in as we strive daily to enforce good governance.

“One municipality that received an adverse opinion in the prior financial year – Oudtshoorn – improved to a qualified opinion while another municipality – Kannaland – regressed from an unqualified with findings to an adverse opinion.

“Particularly pleasing was the improvement in the Oudtshoorn municipality. Clearly our intervention has had a positive impact on governance in the municipality. It can only improve further. While I am concerned about Kannaland, I believe with the necessary support Kannaland municipality will be able to turn things around,” Bredell said.

Meyer said the vision of good financial governance remained the springboard to quality service delivery to communities in the Western Cape. “Over the past years we have worked tirelessly to instill a zero-tolerance approach toward those who transgress the financial laws governing this province. We have also rolled out various training initiatives to ensure that our staff are adequately skilled,” he said

“We believe that good financial governance translates into better service delivery to our people. We are investing all our energy into making this goal a reality," Bredell said.