Executive Mayor Zamuxolo Peter requested urgency regarding the implementation of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee’s (MPAC) key recommendations in his opening address at Makana Municipality’s first ordinary council meeting of the year.
Executive Mayor Zamuxolo Peter requested urgency regarding the implementation of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee’s (MPAC) key recommendations in his opening address at Makana Municipality’s first ordinary council meeting of the year.
The meeting was held last week on Wednesday 12 March.
MPAC advised that due to the continuing financial difficulties that the municipality is facing, the recommendations put forward concerning the coordination of financial oversight needed to be treated as an urgent matter.
MPAC’s report included three key recommendations concerning the municipality’s financial constraints.
The first was that the Budget Steering Committee should meet at least once a month.
Second, that a new Special Financial Oversight Committee, which would include members of the Senior Management Team and relevant councillors, should be created.
They advised that this committee should meet once a week.
Thirdly, MPAC recommended that separate bank accounts should be set up for each conditional grant to ensure that funds are not spent illegally.
Other proposals included recommendations of performance reviews regarding the failed submissions of Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan quarterly reports.
A workshop on the implication of non-compliance for the register of Fruitless, Unauthorised, Irregular and Wasteful Expenditure was proposed as well as a suggested study of how issues raised by the ward committees get processed.
The matter of making the inadequate state of Makana’s IT division a priority was raised.
Finally, MPAC proposed that at each Portfolio Committee sitting, there should be a process report on the implementation of strategies used to reduce overtime.
During the council meeting, councillors put forward additional recommendations.
These included a request for a financial meeting to occur monthly and investigation into the issue of overtime by MPAC.
MPAC was established by the council to perform an oversight function for the council.
It has the job of considering and evaluating the Municipality’s Annual Report, follows up on past recommendations made and makes recommendations which the council can take into consideration.
In their report the committee explained that the purpose of the proposals was to ensure that all claims on the budget are dealt with holistically and to assist in setting spending priorities when funds are limited.
These proposals are especially important considering the current unfavourable state of Makana’s finances.
All recommendations were agreed upon and adopted at the council meeting.
