Annual report highlights council shortcomings

The 2018/19 Annual Report for Polokwane was tabled during a special council meeting last week.
It was tabled January this year, as required by law, but was incomplete, as it was handed in late to the Auditor-General.
The Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) recommended that further investigations be done to determine if there have been transgressions committed by municipal employees in contravention with the Municipal Finance Management Act and supply chain regulations, and if the money could be retrieved from them. The Annual Report as audited by the Auditor General has indicated awards were made to service providers who are in the service of the municipality and failed to declare that.
MPAC, after a couple of site inspections, found that the Municipality is not doing well in terms of service delivery. Projects are not completed within specified timeframes, poor performing contractors’ contracts are being terminated and tender procedures have to be started anew. Poor quality work had to be redone by new contractors appointed.
Other findings were:
• Poor monitoring of and no skills transfer by consultants.
• The municipality lost grants money by not being able to spend the money awarded and roll overs were declined, having a serious effect on implementation of projects and finances.
• Poor record keeping resulted in access to certain information being lost.
• Polokwane Housing Association’s process allocating units at Ga Rena might lead to litigation. Units were allocated to hijackers and people not meeting the qualifying criteria.
• The municipality do not assess the performance of the Municipal Manager and Directors as required by applicable Regulations.
• Internal audit officials are not registered with professional bodies and the Institute of Internal Audit South Africa and they were excluded during audit of annual financial statements.
Recommendations by MPAC
• Stringent measures must be implemented by the Municipality to improve performance on grants and capital spending. Poor performing contractor should be investigated and not be considered for future projects.
• Effective methods should be implemented in terms of recordkeeping.
• The Polokwane Housing Association must ensure that the process applied for the re-allocation of units will not lead to litigations against the entity and Municipality.
• The Municipal Manager and Directors must be assessed in terms of Local Government Regulations.
• MPAC recommended to Council that their Oversight Report be adopted and the 2018/19 Annual Report be approved with reservations and the oversight report be made public and submitted to relevant authorities in accordance with the Municipal Finance Management Act of 2003.
• A detailed report on the performance of consultants to be submitted by the municipality and mechanisms be put in place to monitor and enforce skills transfer to internal staff.
• Units at Ga Rena must be allocated in terms of the property administration policy.
• Internal auditors must be registered with professional bodies and must form part of the audit of annual financial statements.
The report was adopted, with the understanding that corrections and council recommendations are to be included.