Johannesburg, 04 Apr 2007
Sisonke District Municipality, with its seat at Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal, has implemented a new financial management system to improve efficiency and better meet the needs of its citizens.
In July 2006, following a tender process, the municipality appointed Business Connexion to implement its eVenus Financial Management System to facilitate the preparation of required reports and manage indigent policies.
Mthethunzima Mkatu, acting chief executive of Sisonke District Municipality, says the system has the necessary functionalities and is treasury compliant.
"In appointing Business Connexion, Sisonke District Municipality also wanted to position itself for the future implementation of a shared service centre," says Ed de Kock, account executive at Business Connexion's KwaZulu-Natal Regional Office.
"The shared service centre will assist smaller local municipalities within their district boundaries, such as Ingwe, Ubuhlebezwe, Greater Kokstad, Kwa Sani and the Mkhomazi Wilderness Area, with information technology infrastructures and any systems needed to run their organisations' business processes.
"Our contract included supplying and installing all the hardware and software for the integrated financial system," continues De Kock. "In addition, as part of our service, the Sisonke staff that operates the system will be thoroughly trained.
"To ensure we tendered on the system that would be most suitable for Sisonke District Municipality, a high-level project definition document was drawn up to indicate the critical requirements and areas to be considered, as well as key roles and responsibilities."
A number of critical business rules were investigated and confirmed or allocated to task teams for finalisation. Additional business rules were defined in interviews and workshops with various members of the team.
The business requirements phase included a thorough impact analysis of the integrated financial management system on the individual departments and divisions.
Installation commenced in July 2006 and progress has been monitored through steering committee meetings every Thursday, which have tracked progress and ironed out all problems.
"The installation is on schedule and is due to be finalised at the end of March 2007. We will begin the training and monitoring of the new system to ensure that any issues which arise are addressed.
"It is our belief that with the new system we will enhance the services delivery of the municipality, and provide timeous financial reporting and better financial control by the council and government institutions in line with the Municipal Financial Management Act. The municipality will also be able to better manage their debtors, implement more efficient credit control and indigent management and enjoy enhanced revenue recovery and cash management.
"Currently the old system is running in tandem with the new system and live switchover will take place in April 2007. The first month has been smooth and we have no doubts about a successful handover in April," concludes De Kock.
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