eThekwini municipality misses deadline on Covid-19 spending audit

The audit report into eThekwini Municipality’s R456 million Covid-19 spending missed its completion deadline, with auditors citing “non-compliance” as one of the main issues.

The spending covers the four-month period between late March and July when the country was in a hard lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a report presented before the executive council, the audit was scheduled for completion by 1 October.

However, there were delays due to the failure of sourcing documents from the supply chain management, operations units, and the inability to verify expenditure reports.

“There have been issues of non-compliance that have been identified, improvements required on document management controls, internal control deficiencies on segregation of duties, as well as improvements that relate to system controls,” read the report.

Mxolisi Kaunda, mayor of eThekwini, ordered an audit report of the city’s R456 million Covid-19 bill in August.

Speaking in August, Kaunda said the audit reports were in the interest of transparency and to ascertain whether supply management chain processes were followed in the procuring of services and goods.

A status report tabled at an executive committee meeting last week by Phumi Madlala, acting chief audit executive, stated that three of the five audit teams had completed their work.

The three completed draft reports were consolidated into a single report for consultation with executive management.

“Management has supported the audit process and provided root causes for findings as well as responses on how the findings will be rectified,” said the report.

This article first appeared on Berea Mail and was republished with permission.

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