• ACTis has raised three flags for Beaufort West Local Municipality and placed two under monitoring.
• The Municipality suffers from prolonged political and administrative instability. High rates of leadership turnover are likely driving institutional instability. This may be contributing to a culture of impunity, weakening internal controls and creating conditions in which informal influence can displace formal authority.
• Despite progress under a Financial Recovery Plan (FRP), serious financial management and accountability issues persist. The continued failure to finalise annual reports and address historical audit findings weakens corrective feedback loops, allowing financial governance failures to endure rather than be corrected. Entrenched practices have become difficult to disrupt, even with external intervention.
• While many of those implicated in corruption have left the Municipality, informal networks may still be influential.