Makana Mayor Vumile Lwana said the findings by the office of the Auditor- General (AG) reveal that the municipality’s performance manage systems are not functional and that heads should roll.
Makana Mayor Vumile Lwana said the findings by the office of the Auditor- General (AG) reveal that the municipality’s performance manage systems are not functional and that heads should roll.
“This is a sign of a weak management; It can’t be business as usual, why do we have to accept mediocrity?” asked Lwana while addressing councillors at a special council meeting on Friday.
He was clearly annoyed with the use of the word “challenges” which Municipal Manager Ntombi Baart made use of in her reaction to the AG report.
He says this is merely people’s failure to solve the problems at hand. He added that if one makes light of serious problems one is unlikely to “respond appropriately” to it. “Not using specifics when discussing issues will make it difficult to resolve them,” he said before challenging Baart to respond to the adverse audit which revealed that the municipality’s recordkeeping was in disarray during the 2008/2009 financial year.
Baart announced that there were officials from the AG’s office which were also attending the meeting and conceded with the council that the report was indeed damning. “It’s disappointing after the much work which has been done and whose reports were tabled in front of various committees,” she said.
She added that most of the AG’s findings are disputed by the municipality’s officials and that the AG’s report is “not a true reflection of the municipality’s financial position”. She also said some documents were rejected by the AG’s office because they were not of the required format.
“I don’t think we deserve the opinion we received,” she asserted. Meanwhile, ANC councillor Theo Fulani pleaded with the municipality’s officials to pay attention to basic things such as proper maintenance of leave records and conducting bank reconciliations.
“What are we really doing if we can’t fulfill these basic requirements?” he asked. "We have employed a consultancy to develop our IDP [Integrated Development Plan], what are our officials doing when our IDP is not presented systematically?”
ANC councillor Mxolisi Ntshiba suggested that the council be reconvened to hear how the municipaliy’s officials would explain the recurrence of the issues raised by the AG. Another ANC councillor Xolani Simakuhle supported Ntshiba’s view and emphasised that Baart has to account to the council for the AG’s findings because she is the municipality’s accounting officer.
“We can’t continue like this, for instance all our drivers are currently on leave, and consequently, the agendas arrived late,” he said.
Simakuhle added that Baart’s defence that the municipality had documents which were rejected by the AG’s office because they were not of the “required format” was not a valid reason, because the municipality was given enough time to furnish the AG’s with the required information and documents.
“The annual performance bonuses which we give to directors should be well-deserved,” he asserted.
The council resolved to re-address the matter towards the end of next week when the AG’s report will be interrogated and the comments from the municipality’s internal audit committee will be considered. ANC councillor Julia Wells said: “We want to know why issues which were raised in previous audits weren’t
attended to.”
Democratic Alliance chief whip Michael Whisson said the AG made a “shocking satement” that the municipality could not account for the sum of R16.1-million in the council budget. He added that the audit committee’s comments should have been dealt with at the council’s budget, treasury and IDP portfolio
committee meetings.
