DEAR Editor,-
Reference is made to the report ‘No improvements in Ugu and HCM’ in last week’s Herald. This response restricts itself specifically to the Auditor-General’s comments on HCM’s audit outcomes.
As the leadership of HCM, we remain perturbed by this publication because it is substantially divergent from the one given to us at a recent interaction with the Auditor-General’s office. Personally, that meeting was a motivating experience between council and the auditor’s office.
In stark contradiction to your report, a very positive narrative was provided by its representatives. In this third quarter review, the ‘Dashboard Report’ (a graphical representation of Council’s progress) provided clear indication that the administration is on an upward transition.
Notably, issues that were previously red-flagged had shown substantial improvement. In summary, it reflected quantum progression from previous reports and we all left that meeting extremely pleased by the work done. It was our collective understanding that the council will be in receipt of a very positive report if the last quarter reflected similar achievement.
Against that recent experience, the report on the Auditor-General’s comments leaves us utterly confused and demotivated. Our search for the relevant report on the Auditor-General’s website was met with little success. It is our belief that there may be some inadvertent misrepresentation of information. Notwithstanding this, we will wait to be guided by your source of information.
RONNIE NAIR
Speaker HCM
