Advice from big brother

Executive directors in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality have been ordered to implement “stringent measures to curb wasteful expenditure” as well as submit proposals on how to further slash their already-slim budgets to chief financial officer Kevin Jacoby by Friday.

The “implementation of operational efficiency work plan”, addressed to all executive directors, places an immediate moratorium on a host of expenditures and also sees municipal manager Elias Ntoba and Jacoby become the only officials with the ability to sign off on costs such as catering, car hire and gifts. The memorandum states, among other things:

All entertainment expenses must be stopped with immediate effect, while Ntoba will decide whether to approve catering and refreshments for meetings with “other spheres of government”;

• Conferences, seminars and workshops to be attended only in exceptional circumstances;
• Only local municipal venues to be used for workshops/retreats and the number of project/programme launches must be minimised;
• The hiring of vehicles must be limited to exceptional instances, such as refuse collection and pail services;
• Use of consultants to be reviewed;
• Executive directors’ out-of-office phone costs and internet usage must be capped and “enforced fully”, and if exceeded, paid back; and
• Incentive bonus criteria must be reviewed and “restricted to only those who qualify”.

Full report at The Herald Online