Our dedication to the financial health and wellbeing of municipalities
We look back on an exceptionally challenging year. Municipalities are faced with a regression in collections from businesses and residents due to the economic devastation of COVID-19. Despite these significant revenue losses, they still had to provide emergency services, sanitisation and decontamination, quarantine sites, shelter, and much needed food supplies for those impacted by the pandemic. In addition to these challenges, most of our municipalities are also wrestling with irregular and wasteful expenditure. Plus, producing accurate and complete financial statements remains a challenge for many. Our municipal leaders are hamstrung with ineffective decision making because they do not have readily available access to the financial information needed to keep their budgets on track.
Ramping up for the municipal elections
As we are fast approaching the municipal elections towards the end of the second quarter of 2021, we are driven by our passion to make a difference by improving the financial health of our municipalities. An experienced team of dedicated professionals have designed every aspect of our solutions with municipalities in mind. It is time to rebuild and we are joining hands with municipalities across our nation that share this notion. We understand the complexities of the challenges they are faced with on a day-to-day basis. Our solutions speak to the systems, processes, and skills development necessary to build and sustain healthy municipalities which will translate into healthy communities. We partner with municipalities to implement the step changes necessary to improve their financial health. Each investment in the process saves a great deal of time and money in the long run.
We offer Accounting and Professional Services to meet National Treasury’s requirements. Our accounting professionals were trained to be creative thinkers and empathetic leaders who can deal with diverse revenue streams, multiple vendors and the associated complexities. We help municipalities comply with the prescribed formatting outlined in National Treasury’s Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts (mSCOA). This enables them to align all municipal accounting functions to the mSCOA for a clean audit and accurate financial year-end reports.
We understand that closing the municipal skills gap is a critical component for financial health transformation. Our Skills Development and Training programmes were designed to develop solutions-driven thinking in a blended learning environment. We team up with local municipalities and upskill young people in their communities. By developing transferable and employable skills in these young individuals, they can in turn add value and build up the communities that they come from. Being part of their career journey has been incredibly rewarding, not only are their lives changed for the better, but they are also an inspiration for their local communities.
Apart from addressing the critical financial skills gap in our municipalities, we also developed an Enterprise Resource Planning system (Inzalo EMS). The system enables CFO’s and Resource Managers to accurately track and monitor municipal spend and resource allocation. By tracking their spending against budget, they can curb irregular spending and ensure that project efficiencies are tracked and measured. We developed this system from the ground up in strict accordance with National Treasury’s requirements. We did not take any shortcuts or add any third-party plugins which could compromise system integrity and security. The system forces compliance, accountability and avoids maladministration. It sets a standard for best practice and enables local government to keep their hands firmly on the reigns.
Another significant challenge for municipalities is the lack of Information Technology Services and Infrastructure. This adds an additional strain to daily operations. People are struggling to capture data and complete processes because the IT Infrastructure simply cannot cope with the demand. Employees may be skilled, willing, and able to implement financial transformation in their municipalities, but if they do not have the technology and tools needed to perform their jobs, it is simply not possible. We offer a turnkey IT solution – from cloud services, network design and cabling, to data management. We assess the current state and develop a plan that considers the optimal solution with the greatest impact. Many municipalities are experiencing catastrophic financial losses due to cyber-attacks and hacking. We assist with IT risk management and systems security to combat these attacks – local government can simply no longer afford to lag, and protecting valuable resources is of the utmost importance.
Without accurate and available data, it is extremely difficult for municipal managers and councillors to be decisive and execute effectively. Business Intelligence (BI) is a crucial enabler for expenditure tracking and transparency. The power of our BI tool lies in its simplicity. We’ve developed it especially for non-financial managers. Our ward councillors can track project expenditure down to the cent and take corrective action if required before unnecessary losses are incurred. Valuable data can be spliced and diced to measure against key metrics and ensure transparency throughout a project’s lifecycle. The BI tool can also produce GRAP compliant formats to produce the necessary financial statements at the push of a button. The Municipal Managers can generate statements daily, monthly, or quarterly. It also saves so much time as there is no need to import and export large volumes of data to produce the statements. It also eliminates the need to hire external consultants and pay exorbitant fees to produce financial statements for year-end reporting to the Auditor General.
In a nutshell – geared for success
All our solutions are designed to set local government up for success. The Inzalo Group of companies are all B-BBEE Level 1 companies. We have partnered with local government to optimise the complete municipal revenue cycle. From our expertise, and data-driven insights to our proudly South African manufactured products, we focus on what matters – futureproofing South Africa’s public sector. Our skills, dedication and passion are focussed on a better outcome for our nation. We want to improve the lives of all communities so that we can thrive in our diversity. A strong infrastructure will support economic growth. This vision requires tenacity, grit and hard work – which often takes place behind the scenes. We believe in our cause and want to serve our nation well within our lifetimes to leave a legacy that our youth will be proud to build on.