Durban — The issue of what happened to 300 donated bicycles was brought up when the topic of asset losses and write-offs came under discussion at an eThekwini full council meeting on Friday.
The eThekwini Municipality Economic Development and Planning Committee sought authority to write off assets which are not physically in existence and were not found in the scanning process as of June 30, 2022.
Ninety-three assets under computers, furniture and equipment, dating back 19 years, cost R2 033 000.
It was reported that initially, the physical verification process was less sophisticated as assets were marked with either paper barcodes or permanent markers. The use of paper barcodes and permanent markers had been found to be unreliable as over time, as the ink faded and they could be removed with ease.
A committee report stated that asset checks were done manually to see if assets existed. The checks were then compared with the register. Further difficulties were experienced when trying to determine which assets were sent to the disposal yard, and, over the years, several assets had been disposed of without any reference to the unit or barcode number.
Now, the Economic Development Unit has embarked on a Fixed Asset Register clean-up drive to ensure that all assets appearing on the register are in existence at the correct values.
A physical verification of assets was undertaken in the 2021/2022 financial year. The reconciliation process has revealed that several items appearing in the asset register were not found over the years. The report stated that assets which could either not be found or had been disposed of in previous financial years, would need to be written off.
eThekwini Economic Development and Planning Committee chairperson Thanduxolo Sabelo said that after initiating a thorough search for the assets they took a decision to write them off.
Three hundred bicycles were handed over to the then eThekwini Municipality mayor James Nxumalo by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) on December 6, 2011. The 300 bicycles formed part of the low-carbon public transport component of the government of South Africa and the GEF/UN Industrial Development Organisation’s project for the COP17 Greening Programme. They also marked the inauguration of the eThekwini Non-Motorised Transportation Plan.
DA councillor Andre Beetge said they were donated to the city and became recognised as an asset. Beetge argued at the time that they should not be put in storage.
“There were questions on whether (they) should be distributed to councillors in the interest of a wellness programme, or municipal officials. These bicycles have since disappeared. About three years ago we started with an investigation on those bicycles and suddenly they started turning up in second-hand dealers where they were on sale for between two and three thousand rands,” Beetge said.
He added that the bicycles were handled by or were under the control of the eThekwini Transport Authority and some were kept in Durban metro police facilities because they were equipped with lights and patrollers were using them at the time.
“Although it might be a minuscule amount… we cannot find these assets and we have to write them off. They were kept in trust in a department which means that the department did not do their work. That department must account for why it could be that something gets lost from behind closed doors,” Beetge said.
He sent out a warning to departments to look after items allocated to them instead of coming to the council and saying, “we do not know”.
“This is a loss to the city whether it's a pen or bicycle. We want to know where they are,” he said.
Sabelo said he agreed with Beetge that municipal property must be taken care of.
“The committee did mention this and (must) make sure those responsible and who (lost them) must be brought to book. If the asset is lost we need a report. Employees must become responsible. We are working towards a clean audit,” Sabelo said.
Daily News