Audit Uncovers Financial Mess in Curepipe & Savanne Municipalities

Local communities in Mauritius seem to be facing increasing difficulties, especially as they have not been renewed for several years.

The accounts of Curepipe municipality and Savanne district council showing several financial irregularities.

Curepipe municipality, under scrutiny due to several financial irregularities as reported by the Audit office.

Firstly, highliting the inability to verify the completeness and accuracy of reported revenues amounting to Rs 101,777,488 due to the absence of original investment certificates.

Additionally, figuring related to general tax receivables totaling Rs 51,336,740 could not be verified due to lack of information available for auditing.

As for the municipality’s real estate and equipment, their completeness, existence, and accuracy could not be confirmed for several reasons.

Firstly, the Fixed Assets Register was incomplete and not updated, with no investigation conducted on buildings and public infrastructure.

Furthermore, the value of municipal land, assessed at Rs 69.9 million, was underestimated due to a failure to reevaluate in accordance with IPSAS 17.

Irregularities were also found in the municipality’s debts. The accuracy of provisions, estimated at around Rs 14 million, could not be established due to incomplete information.

Additionally, no details have been provided for the Rs 11,735,409 due for retention money.

Moreover, the figures from the council’s Ebiz system differed from those in the financial statements by approximately Rs 66 million.

General tax revenues, amounting to Rs 38,948,640, also did not convince auditors due to the absence of a cadastral survey in compliance with the law.

Additionally, depreciation figures, totaling Rs 3,834,476, were underestimated by Rs 73 million as the assets involved were not properly depreciated.

Finally, non-market transaction revenues, totaling Rs 413,004,724, were not confirmed due to the lack of a database of active traders in the municipality.

The Audit office identified several financial anomalies in the accounts of the Savanne district council for the 2022 financial year.

A concerning finding is that nearly 74% of market fees revenue, totaling Rs 4.7 million, were not collected.

Additionally, no provision was recorded for expected losses on market receivables.

Unused sick leave days in 2020, representing an estimated debt of around Rs 3 million as of June 30, 2022, were not taken into account in the accounts.

Source: Defi Media