December 11, 2003
By Thomas Thale
THE City of Johannesburg is striving to meet its target of having a clean audit report by the 2004/5 financial-year.
This was said by Councillor Parks Tau, the mayoral committee member responsible for finance, strategy and economic development, at a media briefing this week.
Tau's remarks follow a disclaimer on the city's financial statements released by the Auditor-General, Shauket Fakie, earlier in the week. The AG however, acknowledged a significant improvement in the city's handling of its finances, even giving some entities clean audit reports.
The disclaimer was on the completeness of revenue and included both City Power and Johannesburg Water. Johannesburg Roads Agency, Johannesburg Property Company, Johannesburg Development Agency, Johannesburg Civic Theatre and Metropolitan Trading Company received clean audit reports.
However, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Bus Services, Fresh Produce Market, Pikitup, City Parks and Johannesburg Zoo all received qualified audit reports.
Tau said that in the course of 2003, the city had introduced various measures to "place the city on a financially solid and sustainable foundation for the future".
Committing the city to prudent financial management, Tau announced that a steering committee, chaired by Roland Hunter, Executive Director for Finance and Economic Development, had been set up to monitor progress on a monthly basis.
The upgrading of the city's long-term rating from BBB+ to A- by Fitch Ratings was seen as a confirmation of "the progress made in respect of financial management by the city over the past four years". In August, another rating agency, CA Ratings, gave the city a long-term rating of A+.
Tau also revealed that from the 2003/4 financial-year, the city would implement the Generally Accepted Municipal Accountign Practice (GAMAP) as a pilot project in conjunction with the Department of Treasury.
In terms of revenue collection, Tau held up the establishment Revenue Shared Services Centre (RSSC) as an answer to the problems plaguing the city's Revenue Management Unit. "The establishment of the RSSC is in the process of finalisation and some key staff, including the CEO, have been appointed," Tau said. Joburg Connect managed to resolve 341 442 of the 366064 queries logged.
Tau heralded improvements in the city's handling of its finances as part of the broader improvements in service delivery. Comparing figures from the Census 1996 to the Census 2001 report, he noted that the number of people with access to electricity increased from 600 000 to 850 000, representing 85% of households.
There was a 50% increase in refuse removal, from 600000 in 1996 to 900000 households in 2001. Some 80% of households in the city now have water-borne sewerage, Tau said. Tau ascribed all these improvements to the efforts made by the city to improve on its service delivery.
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