FEEDBACK ON DOCRRA MEETING WITH KDM FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

DOLPHIN COAST RESIDENTS & RATEPAYERS ASSOCIATION

DOCRRA met with the Finance Department at KDM on Monday 27th September.

Present from KDM was Adil Nunkumar, responsible for budgets, Nishara, acting head of revenue, and Shamir Rajcoomar, the CFO, with PA Cindy taking the minutes. We had an agenda of issues, and the presentation was also handed out in hard copy.

The meeting began with Shamir introducing his team. We have summarised key items that were discussed at the meeting below:

• The Finance department has 30% vacancies, with an even higher figure in the in control and procurement divisions.
• To mitigate the problem, they have introduced IT systems such as MoonSoft and others to assist.
• They do not make use of consultants and there are many single person dependencies, near retirees and overworked staff.
• They are very proud of their clean audits, financial sustainability, and awards that they have won.
• Shamir is due to retire in about 4 years. This will be a loss for KDM and the community.
• Property Revaluation Objections
  • There are approximately 1,600 property revaluation objections.
  • They are handled in batches of around 500. The second batch is imminent, and the final batch by end of October.
  • KDM themselves have submitted a further 1,000 undervalued objections. They will be handled after October.
  • Finance is not interested in heavy handed action on objections and appeals and will work with everyone coming forward and engaging on their concerns
• At present revenue collections are on target and estimated to be around a 5% overall average increase year on year (after the 25% rebate has been taken into account). DOCRRA’s main remaining concern is whether the 25% rebate will be maintained in future years.

After much discussion on budgets, and the spending thereof resulting in surpluses, we learnt the following:

• Budgets are determined by a budget committee headed up by the Mayor and not Finance. They can comment and give input, but in the end, it is a political decision.
• Underspending is an issue. Finance agrees that budgets need to be spent, and although there are many legit provisions for the cash surplus, they understand our concern.
• The surplus does get used to fund the capital budget though. However, KDM underspends on the capital budget as well, and the reserves being built up for that, is going to take a long time to be used. DOCRRA will keep pushing on this issue.

Click Here for the link to the agenda of the meeting.  

DOCRRA is currently investigating several issues of concern on financial transgressions and will report thereon once we have more clarity. The Finance committee continues its research on the audit for F2020/21 and a range of related matters.