Tshwane plans to purge fraud and corruption in its ranks

To rid itself of fraud and corruption, Tshwane has pledged to implement a meticulous audit action plan, designed to root out weaknesses, prevent financial losses, and enforce transparency and good governance.

This strategic initiative is a concerted effort to shore up the city’s defences against wrongdoing by officials, and a commitment to an era of transparency, accountability, and integrity in Tshwane’s governance.

The priority audit areas will be loss control, fleet, overtime and leave, and litigation management.

MMC for Corporate and Shared Services Dana Wannenburg said this is part of Tshwane’s commitment to good governance and fiscal responsibility.

https://x.com/tshwane_mayor/status/1817849539815956693

The focused audits and risk management come at a time when the metro has passed several reports made by the Municipal Public Accounts Committee regarding the recovery of R246-million in irregular expenditure during the 2023/24 financial year.

The Section 79A Committee recommended that irregular expenditure of R246-million in the 2023/24 financial year be recovered after its report on June 20 highlighted instances where municipal funds were expended without proper authorisation or were in violation of established financial protocols during recent fiscal years.

Wannenburg said this plan would be implemented in parallel with a renewed approach to risk management, so the city could effectively identify and mitigate key risks that stand in the way of good governance and effective service delivery.

“The audit on loss controls will benefit our systems for managing and mitigating financial losses, including inventory and asset management,” he said.

He added that the audit of the fleet would analyse vehicle use, management, maintenance and repairs, fuel usage, budget allocation and cost-effectiveness.

The audit of overtime and leave would build on existing investigations that have identified abuse and the need to tighten up systems for granting overtime, sick leave and paid leave.

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Wannenburg said audits of litigation management would focus on how legal cases and costs are managed and evaluate current risk management strategies to prevent future legal costs and losses.

“The audit will evaluate past and current legal case management and will support the new litigation management strategy that was recently approved, which aims to build internal legal capacity and systems to ensure effective litigation management, prevent unnecessary legal action and save the city millions in legal expenses.”

He said the legal cost budget for 2024/25 is sitting at just over R100-million.

“We need to focus on investing that in our own people and implementing digital case management systems that can drive efficiencies.”

Wannenburg said they are also finalising the risk management register, which is an essential tool for identifying, assessing and managing risks across the city.

“The metro aims to develop a strong culture of risk management which sees every city employee mindful of identified risks and how to avoid them and strengthens institutional resilience to current and future risks that we face.

“Over the past year, we have been rebuilding the capacity of group audit and risk, from the appointment of the Chief Audit Executive to the senior management responsible for internal audit, risk and forensic functions.

“This way we are fulfilling our commitment to building strong governance structures, preventing fraud and corruption and enhancing operational efficiency.”

The planned audits and finalisation of the risk management register are pivotal steps in this endeavour, he said.

“Tshwane will continue to work diligently to address identified risks, implement effective controls and ensure that our city’s operations are conducted with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism,” said Wannenburg.

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