Things don’t add up for councillors

Complex new accounting system leads to head-scratching all round

There were blank stares all round as councillors battled to understand a new information system which the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality needs to switch over to by July next year.

Plans are on track to launch this complex system which all municipalities have to implement before the start of the next financial year.

The system is supposed to make preparing financial statements faster and more accurate.

Councillors struggled to make sense of a presentation about the Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts (mSCOA) system, saying they needed a workshop to be able to understand what exactly the municipality would be launching.

But expenditure management and budget control director Barbara de Scande said several workshops had been held with councillors to explain the system.

De Scande’s department updated the human resources and corporate administration portfolio committee yesterday on the progress made so far to implement the mSCOA system.