Woeful performance on jobs plans

A hard-hitting report by the city's performance audit committee has revealed the municipality's general failure in meeting a wide range of targets.

According to the report, which was presented to the municipal public accounts committee (Mpac) recently, crucial year-end objectives relating to youth unemployment are in danger of not being met. This is evidenced by the city's woeful performance in meeting mid-year targets, recorded from July to December last year.

The report said that it should be indicated, at this stage, that the current performance means that annual targets will not be met.

The audit committee noted that "intensified performance levels" were required to ensure the city met its targets.

"Failure to deliver against predetermined objectives will result in an audit qualification for the city. This will imply that the city is not setting smart objectives," the committee warned.

More effort required

The performance audit report suggested that more effort was required to meet targets.

It revealed that in the six months between July and December last year, the city was only able to facilitate training and provide jobs for 81 trainees as part of the Jozi Skills Hub initiative.

The city should have trained and placed 500 trainees in that period, to meet its year target of 1,000 placements.

The city did manage to create 18,795 "work opportunities" through the expanded public works programme by the end of last year, exceeding the mid-year target of 17,500.

Also lagging far behind is the city's support of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs).

Against a target of 6,000 SMMEs to be supported by the city, only 1,012 SMMEs had received attention in the six months to December last year.

Investments also proved worrisome, with the city attracting R825m of the R1bn expected through its Urban Development Zone scheme.

Source: Sowetan via I-Net Bridge