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Members of the eThekwini council’s municipal public accounts committee expressed shock on Thursday on learning that the critical audit committee – charged with the important tasks of detecting fraud and corruption, monitoring and risk management – was populated by officials without the requisite skills for the job.
The councillors – who met to discuss the plethora of concerns raised by the auditor-general about weaknesses in the unit – learnt that the officials had been “dumped” into the audit committee because they were surplus staff from other departments.
The municipality is tightening its financial controls and procurement policies following the release of the Manase Report, which revealed that millions had been squandered through fraud, corruption and maladministration.
The auditor-general had found that, as of May 2011, the audit unit had no full time head and that, in terms of the internal audit charter, the unit should have adequate financial, human and technological resources, which were lacking.
The auditor-general recommended that action be taken urgently to ensure that the unit was given the resources it needed to perform in accordance with the required standards.
However, when the acting head of the unit, Vusi Ndlovu, appeared before the committee to tell it about the remedial measures taken to deal with the auditor-general’s concerns, he was unable to allay the councillors’ fears about the state affairs in this unit.
Legacy
Ndlovu said a number of people placed in the unit did not have the requisite skills.
“In terms of numbers they are there, but they do not have the skills,” he said, triggering questions from committee members, who demanded to know what “these warm bodies are doing exactly” at the unit.
“Most of these people are sitting idle. It is a legacy problem,” said Ndlovu, adding that the position of unit head had been advertised.
IFP councillor Prem Iyir was not impressed, saying that the committee needed to make recommendations on what needed to be addressed at the unit.
“But we need to see the organogram in order for us to visualise the problems and make proper recommendations. This internal audit committee has a very vital role to play.”
Public accounts committee chairman Sipho Nzuza said the committee wanted the audit unit to be given sufficient capacity soon.
“It is bad for this big municipality, with a budget of R30 billion, not to have this important function,” he said, adding that his committee would apply pressure to ensure that a unit head was appointed immediately.
Nzuza said the unit should ensure that all risk areas were being monitored and that it was able to control residual risks, ensuring that they were within acceptable levels.
“We need to make sure that the controls are in place to manage and reduce these risks, ensuring that remedial actions are in place to manage and control risk,” he said.
Members of the committee called for the unit to be properly staffed with people who were able to understand and deal with the risks facing the city. – The Mercury
