BCC to audit ward retention fund

BULAWAYO City Council’s internal audit section will this year work on auditing the ward retention fund, a move meant to find out whether the fund is being used in compliance with council regulations and policies.

The ward retention audit is part of a number of proposed new audit projects by the local authority meant to further improve service delivery. According to a council confidential report the audit section has identified 10 projects for the year which they intend to audit.

“On the ward retention fund, audit will evaluate if the funds are used in compliance with applicable regulations and policies, and whether ward plans are regularly updated to ensure the proposed projects match current community needs and priorities. Additionally, evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the programme and identify key risks and controls,” reads part of the report.

The fund was first mooted in the 2015 budget outreach programme were council resolved to be funding projects that were decided by the ward under the leadership of their elected councillor. Funding for the projects was to be tied to what each ward contributed to council’s coffers as a means of encouraging residents to pay their bills.

The receipts into the fund are three percent of all cash received from payment of services billed to ward residents. In the past years the fund has been subject to controversy with top officials — at one point — being accused of stifling development in the city after it emerged that nine wards in the city have not had ward retention funds released to them since 2016.

The local authority will also carry out an audit of a number of contracts awarded to private individuals and companies. This comes against the backdrop of recent reports that the local authority is likely to cancel the Egodini rehabilitation tender as the contractor, Terracotta Private Limited, had failed to meet the set timelines for the completion of the first phase of the project.

“The section will conduct project management audits to evaluate whether projects achieve time and budget goals and identify key risks in projects that are not meeting these targets. Audit will also follow-up on previously issued audit reports, tracking and following up all audit recommendations made to determine if they were properly implemented by city management,” reads the report.