‘The ‘ship of district council’ is turning around’

DEAR Editor,-

All was revealed by the Auditor-General at the public meeting of Ugu District Council on January 29. The ‘ship of district council’ is turning around; and the disclaimer of last year has been disclaimed by the council’s achievement of a qualified audit opinion for 2013/14.

To put this into perspective, the Auditor-General has four opinion options in his locker. A clean audit is excellent, an unqualified opinion good, qualified opinion bad, and a disclaimer very bad.

The Auditor-General was unhappy with the measurability of planned targets and indicators. He complained about the unreliability of reported performance information. He spoke against persons in the service of the State obtaining awards from Ugu in the breach of supply chain management regulations, and deficiencies in the annual financial statements.

Following the Auditor-General’s presentation and questions from councillors, the chairman of Ugu’s external audit committee, Paul Preston, made the perspicacious observation that the real problem of District Council was not the persistent awarding of tenders to people who defrauded the council, or senior councillors who, in breach of the councillors’ code of conduct, did not pay within three months for services rendered by the council to them, but Ugu’s inability to obtain payments in exchange control transactions with weaknesses in the billing system for water and sanitation.

To this could be added a rapidly increasing debtor’s book of 235 million, with half the accounts being outstanding for more than a year, which is bound to impair the asset.

It would be churlish not to acknowledge the progress made by both the political leadership and senior management in rising from the depths of a disclaimer opinion. It seems likely that the local government elections in April or May next year will strengthen the resolve of the council to continue with the good work in a steadfast manner.

This can better be achieved by ordinary councillors sharpening up their essential oversight over the actions of the executive. Arrangements have now been agreed to provide part-time councillors with more information on financial and performance management such as provided by the Auditor-General in his quarterly dashboard reports to both the management and political leadership of the municipality.

CLLR DAVE SNASHALL