Durban — The eThekwini Municipality Audit Committee (AC) stated that the process of filling the city manager's position had to be restarted as per city policies and it is anticipated that it should reach finalisation within the next three months.
This was contained in a report for the third quarter between January 1 and March 31, 2022, that was presented by AC chairperson Siboniso Shabalala to the eThekwini executive committee on Tuesday.
The AC is an independent advisory body that advises the council of eThekwini Municipality, accounting officer and the management of the city and its entities.
The city manager position has been vacant for more than a year after the departure of Sipho Nzuza and attempts to fill it collapsed after a complaint by opposition parties that the ANC at provincial level had manipulated the selection process.
The City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU) provided progress on the implementation of the city fraud implementation plan. Key highlights noted by the AC include the activity on the whistle-blowing hotline for the quarter, the status and activity on the number of cases and those reported to the ombudsman, and the status of the implementing of consequence management. The AC sought clarity from the CIIU on how it was improving the fight against fraud, theft and corruption.
The AC suggested that the CIIU be more transparent with the public to give them confidence that the fraud reported is being dealt with and to encourage the public and employees to continue utilising the whistle-blower services to report allegations of fraud.
The AC recommended the close monitoring of the flood-related relief Work in Progress (WIP) by senior management, including physical verification of completed projects and the capitalisation thereof, as well as the valuation of WIP to ascertain the accuracy of account balances.
The AC found that the Durban Transport Muvo bus receipts were not recorded on the financial system. The AC recommended that management improve controls over the timeous recording of financial information as it was noted the cash receipts on the Almex System derived from Muvo bus operations have not been recorded for the period under review (July 2021 to December 2021).
Furthermore, the Muvo standard operating procedure had not been reviewed since 2019. In response, the city said all Muvo sales and corresponding outflows would be journalised on the system.
The AC noted that the number of occupants living in the hostels exceeded the number of people the buildings were designed to cater for. This number is represented as the number of beds available versus the number of tenants. The AC noted that the business sustainability model of the rental portfolio was questionable when comparing the rental income received versus the projected rental income. This variance is further concerning when compared to the maintenance budget spent on these assets.
The department had no proactive and or preventative maintenance measures in place to ensure the safety of the occupants.
The maintenance strategy of the unit was predominantly reactive. Movement of tenants and the general public in and out of the properties is not controlled and/or monitored.
In response, Beryl Khanyile of Human Settlements said strategies to address the high occupancy rate included the right-sizing of families that are currently in occupation. However, since most of the occupants were unemployed, this requires that they get transferred to low-income housing projects. City-wide there were various challenges including land, finances and the backlog in allocations.
The AC stated that management was encouraged to closely monitor indicators for which a trend of continuous non-achievement throughout the year was noted.
The AC recommended an improved review by the first line, management and second line, performance management and the evaluation unit to prevent the recurrence of deficiencies identified. It was recommended that management review the Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan to ensure compliance with legislation.
Daily News