Parliament is demanding answers from local government on the R25bn irregular expenditure revealed in the Auditor-General’s report, which found that only 18 of the country’s 257 municipalities managed to obtain clean audits, notes a Cape Argus report. The chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Joe Maswanganyi, told National Treasury officials it could not be business as usual in municipalities when billions had been mismanaged. His comments followed a statement by Treasury that municipalities account directly to Parliament on irregular expenditure. Jan Hattingh, the acting deputy DG for intergovernmental relations at the National Treasury, told the committee they were just as disappointed with the financial performance of municipalities. Hattingh said it was time that municipalities were held to account for the use of funds.