Audit of Residential Facilities, Final report - Division for Social Policy ...

While in the majority of homes (62%) the Board serves for between 1 and 3 years and 3 to 5years (11%) there were some homes where board members serve for more than 5 years (4%)and for an unspecified length of term (23%). In terms of good governance, it is important thatboard members are rotated on a regular basis and not serve for more than 2 terms at a time.While this is difficult to achieve as homes often complain that it is difficult to find peoplecommitted to serve on the Board, at the same time these homes become „more vulnerable‟ toissues of territoriality, blurring of roles as well as a lack of new ideas been generated at the levelof the Board.ii.Director / Manager – 93% of homes (376) had a Director or Manager responsible forthe day to day operations. In the majority of cases one could easily define the role ofthe Manager / Director as:Day to day management of the facilityStaff managementFundraisingCommunity liaison and networkingMonitoring and EvaluationIt is of concern that in 28 homes nationally there was not a Manager to see to the day to daymanagement; again this makes an organisation vulnerable and at risk if there is not one assignedperson responsible for performing this function. In general, the Director / Manager reports to theBoard.iii.Finance Officer – Ninety-three percent of the homes (375) had someone who tookresponsibility for managing the financial records of the home.The guidelines suggest that there is a “…designated financial manager who is responsible forthe implementation of a financial strategy, written policies and procedures and an internal andexternal audit system and … that the financial manager has to comply with PFMA andNPO…”45 | D S D A u d i t o f R e s i d e n t i a l F a c i l i t i e s