Quarter 2 physical asset verification project

QUARTER 2 PHYSICAL ASSET VERIFICATION PROJECT - HAVE THE ASSETS ALLOCATED TO YOU BEEN SCANNED?

There are occasions when you go shopping at your local grocery store and you are met with a sign “closed for stocktaking”. What an inconvenience because you now have to find an alternative shop to buy your groceries from. But have you wondered why businesses conduct stocktaking, and what the benefits of stocktaking are?

In a nutshell, stocktaking helps the business to know how many products it has, whether they have not passed their expiry dates, how many quantities need to be ordered, which products are not selling and need to be discontinued, etc. This information is very crucial for management to plan operations to ensure the business makes profits.

Similarly, the OCJ also undertakes stocktaking. This is done in order to know how many assets the Department has for carrying out its mandate, to whom these assets are allocated, how many of these

assets are unserviceable and need to be disposed of, and how many need to be replaced. This information is crucial as it is further used to prepare some of the notes to annual and interim financial statements. Information gathered through the asset stocktaking also helps OCJ management to plan ahead and proactively manage risks, to ensure that the OCJ always has adequate assets to achieve its strategic objectives.

To shed more light on this important activity, the Office of the CFO usually issues an annual asset verification plan, and for the 2021/2022 financial year, the plan was communicated through Circular 12 of 2021.

Section 45(e) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) tasks all officials with the responsibility to manage and safeguard assets within their areas of responsibility. To fight the scourge of Covid-19, the OCJ has implemented rotational working arrangements where some officials physically come to the office and others work remotely from home.

As part of this new rotational working arrangement, officials were allocated Departmental assets such as laptops, cellular phones, routers, etc., to carry out their official responsibilities. This arrangement makes it even more important to verify and scan all departmental assets.

To ensure that targets outlined in Circular 12 of 2021 are met, all officials are required to liaise with Asset Controllers assigned to their Service Centres for purposes of verifying and scanning assets allocated to them. This important activity of asset verification has to be undertaken even under the new rotational working arrangement.

Officials working remotely must make arrangements for Asset Controllers to access their offices to scan assets, and may also send photographs of assets used to work remotely for purposes of verification.

Access to offices for officials working remotely must be granted under strict conditions to ensure confidential information is not compromised, and assets are safeguarded at all times. Photographs of assets must be taken in such a way that they clearly reflect the asset description, asset barcode and serial number, where applicable. Heads of Office in Superior Courts are reminded to issue regular reminders to all stakeholders about the asset verification process currently underway. Lost assets as well as those that are no longer in a working condition must be reported to the Asset Controllers for purposes of write off and disposal.

INFORMATION GATHERED THROUGH THE ASSET STOCKTAKING ALSO HELPS OCJ MANAGEMENT TO PLAN AHEAD AND PROACTIVELY MANAGE RISKS, TO ENSURE THAT THE OCJ ALWAYS HAS ADEQUATE ASSETS TO ACHIEVE ITS STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES HEADS OF OFFICE IN SUPERIOR COURTS ARE REMINDED TO ISSUE REGULAR REMINDERS TO ALL STAKEHOLDERS ABOUT THE ASSET VERIFICATION PROCESS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY

4 By Mr Oupa Gaeadingwe

Director: Assets Management