Finance Administration and Human Resources - HardapRC

DIRECTORATE FINANCE, ADMINISTRATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES

Overview of Directorate
 

The Directorate is headed by Mr. Julian W. Engelbrecht as the Director and is having three divisions such as Finance, Human resources management and Administration, whereby the Administration Division is having the largest number of the staff component.  

FINANCE:

The mandate of the division is to coordinate the financial management of the Hardap Regional Council.  The division's responsibility is to ensure the proper supervision of the revenue collections at all registered revenue points in the region.  Ultimately, the division are there to ensure sound financial management through generating reliable financial reports to public timeously.  In order for the division to have the desired level of accountability in their management, its daily operations are based on due diligence that in essence supports the key governance principals of public trust and accountability.

The below report depicts the detailed summary of our daily duties within the Division Finance. 

1.1       Government Subsidy Received for the pass three financial years

Period	Government Subsidy	Total Budget	GRN Contribution %	HRC Own Resources %
Year 2018/19	52 019 236	68 577 756	76 %	24 %
Year 2019/20	46 115 053	65 701 003	70 %	30 %
Year 2020/21	46 115 053	70 748 743	65 %	35 %

Own revenue resources for the Regional Council are from Income collected from Settlement areas (trading with municipal services at both declared and undeclared settlements) within the Region.  The Regional Council as per the legal provisions in the Local Authorities Act, Act no. 23 of 1992, section 77 (1) are obligated to collect revenue from Local Authorities within the region on 5 % Rates & Taxes, which forms part of the own revenue resources of the Regional Council.   

1.2       Annual Financial Statements

The  Regional Council as per Section 40 of the Regional Council Act, Act no. 22 of 1992 is required to submit the Annual Financial Statements after the end of each financial year.  The recent audits were done during October 2019 for 2018/19 financial year.

The Regional Council is still awaiting for the final audit opinion on the later mentioned report.  The below table depicts the audit opinions for the pass three financial years. 

Period (audited)	Audit opinion
2016/2017	Unqualified Opinion
2017/2018	Qualified Opinion (due to administrative errors)
2018/2019	In progress (OAG)

The detailed reports are available at the official website of the Auditor General. (www.oag.gov.na).

1.3       Accounting Systems use by Hardap Regional Council

Sage Pastel Evolution:  this is the accounting system use to process financial transactions through which daily, monthly and annual reports are generated.

Sage VIP:  this is the payroll management system

Build Together Management System: through this software the Council managed the build together customers. 

 

1.4       Tariff Structures

One of the Regional Council's mandate is the provision of basic services at settlement areas such as water, electricity and sewer.  Hence, the division finance is also responsible for sales of such goods and services.  The Council review its tariffs on an annual bases advice by both internal and external factors of the market.  The Council buy electricity as licence holders of electricity and sell it the inhabitants at settlements, both at declared and  undeclared.  The annual electricity tariffs after being endorsed by the Regional Council is submitted for approval to the Electricity Control Board as the regulating board for electricity management.

 

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 

The Regional Council's staff establishment makes provision for one hundred and fifty (155) post of which one hundred and eleven (111) are filled and forty four (44) are vacant.  In terms of gender, 51% of males and 49% of females are represented in the Council for the current financial year.

The Human Resources Management team ensured that new policies/directives/circulars were efficiently and effectively implemented.  The Council capacitates twenty nine (29) staff members in the category of none qualified and qualified training during the reporting period, although two (2) courses were moved next financial year due to financial constraints.  The strategic objective is to enhance organizational performance with main functions and activities as indicated below.

MAIN FUNCTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

MAIN FUNCTIONS :	ACTIVITIES:
Performance Management System	Develop Affirmative Action Further  Report
Recruitment & Selection	Conduct Payroll verification
Employee Wellness	Coordinate Wellness Programs
Induction & Orientation, Organisational Management	Develop Recruitment Plan and the  implementation thereof
VIP Payroll	Finalize the Pending Disciplinary Cases
Industrial Relations	Staff awareness
Staffing	Conduct Induction & Orientation Programs
Interpretation of Legislation , Organizational Development	Facilitate Performance Management Quarterly Reviews and end of year appraisal's
Learning & Development
Quality customer Services Delivery

STRUCTURE OF THE DIVISION

Division:  Human Resources Management 1x Deputy Director:  Grade 4

Subdivision: Personnel 1x Chief Human Resource Practitioner Grade 6: 1x Senior Human Resource Practitioner Grade 7 3x Human Resource Practitioners  1x (vacant)

Subdivision:  Training 1x Learning and Development Officer Grade 8

Table 2 : The  Human Resources Management Office have a staff component of seven (7)

 

CHALLENGES:

The following issues among others are the most important and most difficult activities challenged with:

• Low Productivity
• Job satisfaction
• Staff turnover
• Absenteeism 
• Financial Constraints 
• Recruitment Process 

ACHIEVEMENTS:

• Awarded of Affirmative Action Certificate  2019/2020
• Conducted three (3) Affirmative Action compliance meetings

Affirmative Action  compliance

Purpose of the Affirmative Action compliance is to achieve equal opportunity in employment in accordance with Article 10 and Article 23 of the Namibian Constitution; to provide for the establishment of the Employment Equity Commission in terms of the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act 29 of 1998; to redress through appropriate affirmative action plans the conditions of disadvantages in employment experienced by persons in designated groups arising from past discriminatory laws and practices; to institute procedures to contribute towards the elimination of discrimination in employment; and to provide for matters incidental thereto.

CHALLENGES:

• comprehensive human resources affirmative action audits need to be conducted, employing transparent and objective methods;
• all discriminatory practices, both direct (obvious) and indirect (concealed); and both formal and informal must be identified and eliminated;
• need to embark on purposeful programmes of action to achieve set goals for balanced staffing over a realistic period of time;
• special training and other accommodating measures must be specifically targeted at disadvantaged or formerly disadvantaged groups;
• and-in selecting amongst candidates of similar ability or potential, members of disability groups should enjoy preferential consideration;
• Lack of funds for the execution of plan and awareness;

 

ACHIEVEMENTS:

Wellness Programme:

The main objective of Employee Wellness is to ensure a conducive working environment, by being a supportive unit to all staff members who are emotionally and/or psychologically challenged for various reasons including medically.  The Employee Wellness is also responsible for promoting and encouraging physical activities by introducing different sports codes within the Regional Council in order to bring staff members together and uphold the spirit of team building by closing the gaps between Management and Staff Members.

Experience has proven that most minor to serious transgressions committed by staff members within the Public Service are as a result of emotional and/or psychological trauma experienced by them and of which they do not know how to deal with and/or to whom they should talk to, out of fear of being stigmatized or discriminated against.

CHALLENGES:

• Staff members interest are very low, though activities were frequently communicated;
• Lack of funds for the execution of employee wellness activities and promotion;

ACHIEVEMENTS:

• Conducted Awareness sessions of health related diseases and risks eg. Diabetic, high blood pressure, World Tuberculosis and Cancer;
• Established an information wellness corner for health related matters.

 

DIVISION ADMINISTRATION

The Administrative Division is having the largest number of employees with various levels of capacities.  Its division is having different sections under its wing such as  Settlements, Constituency Offices, Procurement and Stock Control, Registry, Fleet management, Office support and cleaning services as well.  This division provides administrative functions to the community and stakeholders at large.  The administrative functions includes water, electricity and sewerage network to rural areas under the Council's jurisdiction.