Durban – Senior Msunduzi Municipality managers are facing calls they be disciplined by council following accusations they were not doing their jobs.
For months, senior managers from different business units have allegedly failed to submit important reports to the internal audit unit and the audit committee.
The reports are essential to understanding the performance of the municipality.
In a report to council, municipal manager Madoda Khathide said the senior managers were employed by council and council should discipline them.
Concerns were also raised some business units may not be fully addressing the administrative or compliance issues raised by the internal audit.
It was not immediately clear yesterday which managers are implicated.
The municipality, which has been under administration for more than a year, is running low on cash, and core services such as the supply of water and electricity teeter on the brink of collapse.
A report tabled before the council said since the managers were appointed by council, “it had the powers to implement consequence management on those managers that did not perform their duties as required”.
City’s audit committee chair Bronwyn Kemp, while delivering the committee’s report on the municipality’s performance for the period ending in December, said this was a serious issue but she said some managers had delivered the required reports last month and she hoped that signalled a change.
“In some cases we have not received section 71 reports for six months, and when we do receive them they are six months old and out of date and therefore of no use in allowing us to perform our oversight role,” Kemp said.
She said the committee was concerned about the ongoing late submission of reports as this compromised their work.
ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said the revelations were a cry for help.
“The municipality is crying out for help, that this council takes action against the council-appointed managers for not doing their jobs.”
DA councillor Sibongiseni Majola said the submission of reports had been an ongoing problem throughout the council’s term.
“You cannot blame councillors that they are not performing in the situation we are facing there,” he said.
He said even when the reports were filed, especially in the finance committee of which he is a member, they were in a jumble which made it hard to track whether the municipality was progressing.
“In the last council meeting, we were dealing with reports from September and October last year. What is the point of bringing those reports as the situation might have changed? This is an ongoing problem.
“I do not know why officials choose to do this. It could be that their reports are too ’rotten’ and they are trying to hide that,” he said.
The Mercury