Audit highlights lax overtime controls

SOME eThekwini Municipality officials had been authorising blank overtime forms for staff, it was revealed in the city’s internal audit committee’s quarterly report tabled before the executive committee yesterday.

Addressing exco on the findings and concerns, committee chairman Peter Christianson said this emerged in a review of overtime costs.

Christianson said this meant that pre- and post-approval mechanisms for overtime had been violated.

“This creates an environment in which overtime costs are not controlled or contained,” he said.

Based on these findings, they had been mandated to do more work on the overtime costs and, once completed, would report the results to exco.

On the Revenue Management System, he said the committee was of the opinion that if the metered services modules had not gone live by December, the management should decide whether to proceed with the project.

“The project management contract expires at the end of December and the current approved budget will have to be increased,” he said.

Shocked by the overtime findings, councillors said the officials who were doing this had to be disciplined.

ANC councillor Nondumiso Cele said she was very worried about the overtime issue.

Cele said the names of the departments involved needed to be given to them.

“We need to expose the departments and the officials who are doing this. This is abuse,” she said.

Deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala said IT was one of the problems for the city. “There is something that is not okay. There was a time when we wanted to abandon this programme. It is like a river that is not filling up,” she said.

Shabalala said the officials working on the Revenue Management System must tell them what the problem was.

“These reports are meant to give us warnings so we can tell officials to do their jobs. We need these reports.