Tough task for new Bay leaders

THE contrasting fortunes of Nelson Mandela Bay’s audit outcomes and those of its more acclaimed development entity were laid bare last week by auditor-general (AG) Kimi Makwetu.

While the municipality received a fifth consecutive qualified audit, for irregular expenditure to the order of R1.286-billion, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) was given another clean bill of health.

The reports, officially released by the AG on Wednesday, covered the financial year 2015-16.

It may well have been worse for the metro. Makwetu said the full extent of the city’s irregular expenditure could not be determined in the year under review because procurement recordkeeping was so shambolic.

The figure balloons to more than R3-billion with an amount carried over from the previous year.

The outcome was not entirely a surprise to the metro’s new political leadership, which took over in August last year, less than two months after the financial year in question ended.

Undoubtedly, they have a job on their hands turning the situation around.

Budget and treasury head, councillor Retief Odendaal, has previously detailed a remedial strategy, with focus on supply chain management, to bring order to the municipality’s books.

He repeated these measures last week, at the same time acknowledging the tough work ahead.

Less-taxing efforts await the MBDA, which banked another clean audit, just as it sets about the task of finding a permanent chief executive.

The choice will be an important one, not only for the sake of continuing urban regeneration, but to help ensure the Bay begins to carve out a visionary and prosperous future for all its residents.

First, though, it needs the metro to get its house in order. The 2017 audit will tell us just how close it is.