The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THE Bulawayo City Council will embark on 20 major internal audits for the year meant to further improve their systems and operations, it has been learnt.
Some of the systems that have been lined up for auditing include one to determine if projects are completed in accordance with timeline and project scope and also one to evaluate the effectiveness of land development services. According to a council confidential report, the local authority has lined up 20 systems to be audited during the course of the year as part of its annual work plan.
“The plan was based on a staff complement of 13 auditors comprising one senior internal auditor and 12 internal auditors with an estimated total of 13 764 audit hours. A report will be presented to the audit committee on a quarterly basis in order for the committee to track the performance of the plan.
The performance of the plan is affected by investigators as these arise at any given time during the course of the year and when they do are given preference over the planned projects,” reads the council report.
The local authority noted that the annual plan addressed areas of critical importance to the city in relation to performance audits.
“Such audits provide objective analysis so that management and those charged with governance and oversight can use the information to improve performance and operations of city programmes or activities, reduce costs, increase revenues, facilitate decision making and contribute to public accountability.
It was a requirement by the International Audit Standards that an annual work plan be brought to council via the audit committee for review and approval prior to the execution,” reads the report.
Some of the aspects set to be audited by the local authority are the BCC medical aid health claims programme, the hire of plant equipment for roads operations, road maintenance, council’s fleet management, the efficiency and effectiveness of the council call centre, the effectiveness of the city’s emergency services and the evaluating the operation and reliability of fire hydrants in the city compared to best practices.
BCC will also evaluate the structure of the city’s budget to identify key risks to funding sources necessary to meet expected service levels, water loss management, burial and cremation services, facilities maintenance, competence of key staff positions, land development services, the listing of online services offered by the local authority, the asset management process and also follow-up on previously issued audit reports.
