eThekwini Municipality's fleet management system audit reveals critical weaknesses

The Audit Risk Committee (ARC) has found that the eThekwini Municipality's fleet management system had only basic informal controls in place, with substantial improvements needed to reduce the risk of unauthorised access and activities.

This was contained in an ARC report by City Manager Musa Mbhele to the eThekwini Executive Committee (Exco) on the implementation of management action plans for the period ending September 30, 2025. The municipality had 265 ARC queries, with 172 resolved and 93 in progress.

The total fleet size for the municipality is 9,240, including the Durban Transport bus operations and heavy construction plant. Fuel consumption for October totalled R39,697 million, with municipal vehicles recording 6.6 million kilometres.

Mbhele said that ARC was concerned with the control environment surrounding the management of the fleet, based on the findings tabled by the internal audit.

The internal audit also secured responses from the line departments so that there is implementation of the additional controls and monitoring required to address the challenges in this function.

Mbhele said that daily fuel transactions and usage are monitored to detect any anomalies, and identified irregularities are formally communicated to the relevant directorates for investigation and appropriate action.

He said that if no response is received within five working days, the affected vehicle is hot-listed to prevent further misuse. In cases where abuse patterns persist within the five days, the vehicle is immediately hot-listed

“A comprehensive register is maintained to record queries and the corresponding responses received. A standard operating procedure for fuel management is in place. The municipality is currently migrating to a new online fuel management system with enhanced real-time monitoring system capabilities, including automatic detection of potential abuse such as multiple fuel refills in a single day,” he said.

Mbhele stated in his report that there are instances where the line departments have taken consequence management with referrals to the City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU) and suspension of employees.

“There will be daily monitoring taking place due to the amount of spend on fuel and to keep this cost in check and ensure that challenges are dealt with immediately in line with the recently updated procedures on fuel management,” he said.

The ARC also raised concerns about the IT general controls review of the city fleet management system.

The ARC report stated that these gaps stem from the absence of a User Account Management (UAM) standard operating procedure to oversee ID user administration.

Additionally, system limitations and the lack of a formal support agreement between the city and the service provider further hindered the implementation of the necessary controls.

Mbhele explained in the report that the acquisition of the fleet management system was approved by the Capital Investment Committee (CIC) on February 24, 2024.

Mbhele said the process is at the Bid Specification Committee stage, and the updated procurement plan of the new system is in place and is expected to begin from October 2026.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za