MBOMBELA – Talk about half a decade’s success in attaining clean audits, then you’re talking about the Ehlanzeni District Municipality’s (EDM) success trail where it surpassed the stipulated mandate by national government.
Initially, it was stipulated in 2009 that all municipalities and government departments had to reach such acceptable standards in their accounting systems by 2014, that all should have reached those high standards.
EDM has been attaining clean audits from year one until present. “As we’ve reached the halfway mark to a decade of attaining clean audits, we are optimistic that we will easily traverse through the remaining five years to complete a whole decade of clean audits at our institutions,” said executive mayor, Cllr Letta Shongwe during an exclusive interview on Tuesday morning.
Shongwe was in the company of municipal manager (MM), Adv Hugh Mbatha and CFO, Mr Wiseman Khumalo, who were beaming with satisfaction at their feat. Even along the corridors of EDM, employees were excited and they asked, “Are you here about our clean audit?” It was obvious, indeed.
According to Shongwe, “There is no magic wand to achieving it. It is the MM and the CFO who have ensured things are done according to plan. Of course, as the political leadership, we’ve given them a lot of support, which is teamwork.
“We work together here and there is no political interference in the work of our administration, only support. As long as we keep working as a unit, we will keep on receiving clean audits,” she said.
Khumalo, on the other hand said, “Ever since 2009 when this mandate was cast upon us, we’ve been attaining the clean audits and addressing issues as pointed out by the Auditor General each year. “The most important thing is having all systems in place which involve all employee playing their part.
We have our internal audit in place which deals with all issues that need to be addressed. We have beefed up all organs of operation and are focused on a common destiny, which is success and deliverance,” explained Khumalo.
Asked if now that they’ve reached the halfway mark to completing a decade of clean audits, they will go the next half successfully, he said, “We definitely want to be the champions at the end of the decade.
What we set out to achieve, we will definitely attain. Our employees are encouraged through our systems, to perform at their very best.” Mbatha said, “What’s important is that the systems that we put in place to remedy the situation, have been implemented and are always complied with in our working machinery.
Our feat is shared with our local municipalities and soon they will all comply and do likewise, start attaining clean audit reports, just like us.”
On a lighter note and parting shot, Shongwe was asked if the next five years to complete a decade were possible. “It’s a pity we have the local government elections in 2016, but if the same leadership is retained in this institution after the elections, we’d make sure we retain this winning administration team.
”It is working for the betterment of our people as service delivery and accountability are uppermost in their daily endeavours,” she said.
