Mayor concerned by negative customer satisfaction survey

Despite a fair rating by the Auditor General’s office of the Joburg City Council’s performance in the 2014/15 financial year, Joburg City Mayor Parks Tau expressed concern at the low rating of its services by a recent customer satisfaction survey.

This was said at Alexandra Stadium during the City’s annual general meeting.

The Auditor General’s office stated that the City had since the 2010/11 financial year sustained a gradual improvement in the conduct of its affairs resulting in a reduction in the number of qualified audits for its entities. The office, in a report, said entities with the most disclaimers resulted from non-cash items.

It urged council to sustain its robust audit committee to strengthen its monitoring role, strengthen senior management’s oversight in record keeping and compliance, and mitigate risk areas in the supply chain management. These factors kept the City from a full clean audit. The City was also advised to sustain staff continuity, professional conduct and to strengthen and observe operational procedures.

The mayor said the findings left room for the council to continuously improve its performance. This, he said, was being done by reaffirming a governance model and functions premised on service delivery and a management that was responsive to its mandate on cooperative municipal governance.

Tau added that council had also rationalised and merged some entities to lessen the challenges, particularly for small entities burdened with service delivery challenges with limited resources.

He said despite these positives, recent negative findings of a customer satisfaction survey said the City performed below expected standards on service delivery. The survey, he said, identified concerns for improvement by entity boards and management, which will be reviewed at the financial year end in June.

He urged governance to maintain the vision and set the agenda for the standards and to exercise firm oversight on management which, in turn, should hold operations accountable.

He said some of the identified challenges resulted from the rigidity of bureaucracy and urged the entities to be adaptable to changing trends and public demand.

He lambasted the incessant strike by Pikitup staff, who he accused of engaging in an unprotected and illegal labour strike and for their intimidation while withholding essential services to the public.

Details: Nkosinathi Nkabinde 011 407 6477.