An evaluation of leadership and management influence on audit outcomes : a case study of uMshwathi Municipality.

Abstract

The study aimed to examine challenges facing leadership in municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal that negatively impact the audit outcomes, with a specific focus on the uMshwathi Municipality. It further provided a comparison of audit outcomes for the past three financial years, (2018/19; 2019/20 and 2020/21) and a provincial outlook, highlighting the root causes and recommendations to improve the situation. In addition, the study examined whether there is a need to amend legislation to address some of the root causes and outlined the type of leadership needed to change the situation. This study utilised qualitative research since it permits in-depth engagement with municipal leadership to comprehend their concerns and how they may secure favourable audit outcomes. Due to the qualitative nature of the study, appropriate data collection techniques such as interviews, focus groups, and observation were used. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed using the thematic analysis approach. The study's key findings are structured around leadership skills, audit regression factors, leadership impacts, financial management, governance effects, and improvement strategies. Deficiencies in strategic planning suited to ecological shifts, financial acumen and accountability, and political leadership’s disengagement from fiduciary consciousness emerged. On the other hand, an appetite for participative envisioning emerged. The study recommended that leadership nurture suggested participative planning, control digitisation, communication democratisation policies suiting ecological uncertainty, household mobility yearnings, and social transparency. There is also a willingness to adopt participative planning, fiscal visualisation, specialised skills fusion, and scaled control digitalisation. Thereafter, clean audits manifest co-accountability and require embedding collaborative social contracts fulfilling household aspirations. Tailored competency acceleration also holds potential alongside communication democratisation for turning clean audits into embedded social contracts fulfilling intergenerational mobility aspirations if leaders urgently champion suggested policies. Further research is recommended to investigate participation toolkits, blended administrator-community exchanges, and interface democratisation techniques that dissolve psychological distances.