Answer to Question #203908 in English for Nombuso Nxumalo

Question

You are an accountant at Tshwane Municipality. One of your responsibilities is to process claims for expenses. Senior state officials can claim for certain expenses such as business travel, accommodation at four-star hotels, meals while on business and gifts given to foreign dignitaries. However, you have noticed several irregularities in the claims submitted to you for five-star hotels, expensive hire cars, leisure trips and meals with alcohol. Claims are frequently not backed up with supporting documentation (receipts). Weeding out invalid claims is time consuming, and you are unhappy about your colleagues’ lack of ethics.

Use the information provided above to write a memorandum to all staff members and make them aware of your concerns about claims.

Answer 1

Memorandum

TO: Tshwane Municipality Staff

FROM: William McKinnon(Accountant)

cc: Mr. Wilberforce Keya(CEO)

DATE: June 6, 2021

SUBJECT: Invalid Claims

It has come to the attention of the accounting office that a lot of the claims being submitted to our office are invalid and lack receipts.

This is a very unethical practice that not only taints the image of the municipality but also adds more work to our office.

It is my urge that this is stopped with immediate effect.