Big guns to help in drive for clean metro audit

NELSON Mandela Bay is appointing a group of bigwigs to form part of its external auditing committee as it strives to get a clean audit.

The five candidates, to be appointed officially at the next council meeting, beat seven more people who were vying for the job – including former Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber chief executive Kevin Hustler.

The audit committee is changed every three years and assists the municipality by investigating externally before the auditor-general conducts its own audit.

The list of five candidates who made the cut alongside those who did not, was tabled in the mayoral committee yesterday and comprises Tracy Cumming, Glen Zamisa, Hennie van As, Yonus Amod and Gregory Billson.

Cumming and Zamisa have served in previous committees at the municipality.

The audit committee will receive an original operating budget of R765 000.

Bay mayor and committee chairman Athol Trollip said he hoped the committee would assist in achieving the desired clean audit.

“We appoint an audit committee that can call for documents – we believe they have the necessary expertise,” he said.

“Human resources is one of our big qualification areas where we employ and fire people incorrectly. Some of these people have some interesting qualifications.

“I like the fact that the final list was diverse and represented a candidate who worked for the auditor-general’s office for many years,” Trollip said.

“Auditing and internal risks management are important areas for us and we said we would stop corruption.

“An internal audit is one of the best ways to prevent corruption.”

Trollip said the municipality was working to strengthen the audit team.

“If you have a good, effective, proactive audit committee that asks the right questions and asks for the relevant documents, then you are able to shut down opportunities of risk and corruption.”

The team will start after September 21.