![\"Liabilities\"](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Liabilities.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDespite the increase in municipal liabilities, the country has managed to keep its debt to income ratio at 0.6:1. Municipal income for 2015 amounted to R309 billion.<\/p>\n
Employee costs increased by R4.4 billion between 2014 and 2015 to R73 billion – the single biggest cost increase of all expenses.<\/p>\n Earlier in June,\u00a0Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu said\u00a0that irregular expenditure among South Africa\u2019s municipalities more than doubled over the last five years, to R14.75 billion.<\/p>\n The reason for the increase in irregular expenditure, according to Makwetu, is continued non-compliance with SCM legislation, but also an improvement in the ability of municipalities to detect and disclose current and prior year irregular expenditure in their financial statements.<\/p>\n In 2010-11, 73% of the irregular expenditure was identified during the audit, while in\u00a0 2014-15 municipalities identified 69% of the irregular expenditure \u2013 some using consultants to determine the full extent of irregular expenditure.<\/p>\n Municipalities in North West, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Limpopo were the main contributors to the significant increase in irregular expenditure over the past five years, the AG said.<\/p>\n Fruitless and wasteful expenditure in 2014-15 was more than R1 billion higher than in 2010-11 at R1.34 billion, and was\u00a0 again incurred by an increasing number of municipalities.<\/p>\n Unauthorised expenditure also increased threefold from 2010-11 to R15.32 billion in 2014-15.<\/p>\n The richest and poorest municipalities in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Irregular expenditure at municipalities doubles<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Looking at municipal expenditure, the biggest operational cost to municipalities is paying employees, which\u00a0accounts for\u00a025.6% of all expenses. The next biggest cost is electricity, which accounts for 21.7%.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMore on municipalities<\/h3>\n