The Auditor-General (AG) has given his verdict of the municiplaity’s books. It says adverse. And it is the second year in a row that Makana has been in this category. There is only one lower category which is called ‘disclaimer’. But at least we know one thing: no money has been embezzled, nobody has hands in the till or anything like that.
The Auditor-General (AG) has given his verdict of the municiplaity’s books. It says adverse. And it is the second year in a row that Makana has been in this category. There is only one lower category which is called ‘disclaimer’. But at least we know one thing: no money has been embezzled, nobody has hands in the till or anything like that. But there is a mess which must be sorted out very quickly – in fact in the next three months – because the AG will be here again in July and the first question will be about last year’s problems. This will not be the AG himself, obviously, nor even a member of his staff but an auditor from East London to whom the work has been outsourced. What problems led to the adverse comment? There is no space for details, but here are just a few examples of some of the major worries.
• The bank account and the books do not give the same figure. Reconciling the books and the bank statement is essential otherwise money can go astray.
• There is a list of bad debtors running into many millions. Debts owed by desperately poor people who are in no financial position to pay must be written off.
A lot of work to be done here. Why were they charged in the first place? Allied to this is the oddity that our municipal accounts detail and charge for things like water and sewage connection but in the books the whole lot is just lumped together as revenue from rates. So if your house is valued at R1-million you are still paying more for these extra charges than the rates on your property. This hits the poor very hard.
• Some businesses have been paid for goods or services, but there is insufficient evidence as to exactly what these goods or services were.
• Inadequate records about staff leave. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the municipality’s consultants on staff organisation pointed this out earlier. There is another long list of comments which are not deemed to be adverse, but which need attention.
Of interest is that water supply, electricity, road construction, and the housing backlog do not tie up with the municipality’s future planning, detailed in its Integrated Development Plan. Also the Performance Management System is in operation but it is not effective, efficient or transparent.
What is going to happen? Well Ntombi Baart has sprung into action. She has compiled a chart of 30 key points which must be rectified. Very soon.
Each task has been assigned to the municipal official concerned with a specific date for completion in April or May so that everything is up and running by June.
But will that happen? Ntombi Baart is a hard task master and will be, or is, monitoring closely. So is Brian Reid, chairman of the Makana Audit Committee. Nobody messes with Brian Reid: B.Com. (Rhodes).
CA(SA), auditor for nine years and then a career in industry retiring as Financial Director of SappiForests. One of his duties was staff assessment. Now a resident in Port Alfred he is on the audit
committees of Ndlambe, Sundays River Valley and Makana local municipalities.
And Makana has just asked him and his committee to take over surveillance of its ailing Performance Management System! I think we can expect action or fireworks, the former being the easier route for the officials concerned.
A bad mark from Baart and a bad mark from Reid is not worth risking. Coupled with that are the anxietyridden
municipal councillors, with two adverse comments in two years from the AG and political parties busy revising their lists of candidates for the municipal elections next year.
Councillors want action. Finally there is the general public of Makana who go to the polls next year and decide where to put their crosses on ballot papers. That’s the ultimate sanction. That’s democracy.
Clive Whitford is the chairperson of the Grahamstown Residents’ Association.
