COGTA

PRESENTATION TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE

ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND

TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS

1.STATE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

2.BACK TO BASICS PROGRAMME OF ACTION

3.IMPLEMENTATION OF BACK TO BASICS

21 OCTOBER 2014

1

Introduction

• The fifth democratic administration

• COGTA conducted a desk top assessment

of municipalities in all nine provinces

• The assessment sought to identify three

categories of municipalities:

– Those that are doing well

– Those that have a potential to do well

– Those that are not doing well

• Then a program of action – BACK TO

BASICS

2

Introduction (Cont)

• The assessment was based on following

functional areas:

– Political stability

– Governance

– Service delivery

– Financial Management

– Institutional management

– Community satisfaction

3

What are the elements of the

functional areas ?

4

POLITICAL STABILITY

– Political harmony or discord

– Political interference with supply chain management

processes

– Conduct of, and discipline among, councillors

– Politicisation of labour force

– Unstable coalitions

5

GOVERNANCE

– Holding of Council meetings as legislated

– Functionality of oversight structures, s79

committees, audit committees, etc

– Public participation

– Fraud and corruption

– Execution of LG mandate in terms of the

Constitution

– Political-Administrative interface

– Accountability

– Application of Rules and order

– Feedback of Councillors to communities

6

BASIC SERVICE DELIVERY

– Operation and maintenance of infrastructure

– Spending on capital budgets

– Provision of basic of services

– Quality of services

– Water conservation and demand management

– Water quality

– Sewerage spillages

– Electricity cut offs

– Theft of infrastructure assets

– Community satisfaction

7

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

– Submission of Annual Financial

Statements (AFS)

– Availability of records

– Audit outcomes in last five years

– Cash Backed Budgets, liquidity

– Revenue collection

– Servicing of Debt

– Functionality of Supply Chain Management

–

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INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT

– Competent and knowledgeable leadership

– Filling of key management positions such as in

the engineering, finance, development planning,

legal and corporate departments

– Qualification and experience of personnel

– Adequate Municipal staff establishment

– Vacancy rate

– Relationship with organised Labour

– Training and development of staff

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COMMUNITY SATISFACTION

– Communication with communities

– Participatory planning and budgeting

– Service delivery provision

– Allegations of fraud and corruption

– Responses to petitions, queries and complaints

– Accessibilty of municipality

10

KEY FEATURES OF THREE

CATEGORIES OF MUNICIPALITIES

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MUNICIPALITIES THAT ARE DOING WELL

– Strong political and administrative leadership

– Characterised by political stability

– Councils meeting as legislated

– Functional council and oversight structures

– Regular report back to communities

– Low vacancy rates

– Rates collection above 80% on average

– Spending on capital budgets above 80%

– Continuity in the administration

– Consistent unqualified audit outcomes

– Responsive to service delivery needs

– Good financial management

– Performance driven by Integrated Development Plans, Budget Compliance

and Innovation

12

MUNICIPALITIES THAT HAVE A POTENTIAL TO DO

WELL – Fairly good financial and records management

– Some level of political and administrative stability

– Reasonable feedback through community meetings

– Reasonable access to basic services

– Councils sitting fairly regularly

– Reasonable adherence to the IDP and Budgets, compliance and

little innovation

– Most of administrative positions filled by incompetent staff

– Some critical positions not filled

– Poor expenditure of capital budgets

– Poor records keeping

– Low collection rates (less than 50%)

– Mainly qualified audit outcomes

– Significant mismatch between Plans and Budgets

13

MUNICIPALITIES THAT ARE NOT DOING WELL

– Challenges of political-administrative interface

– High political in-fighting and instability

– Non-compliance with rules and regulations

– High vacancy rates

– High levels of incompetency among staff

– Extremely low levels of capital budget spending

– Inappropriate spending of budgets

– Overall disregard for supply chain management regulations

– Compromised service delivery

– High level of community dissatisfaction resulting in protests

– Absence of Plans

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Over a third

are doing well

A third have the

potential to do well

Just under a

third are not

doing well

COGTA’s recent assessment of the

performance of municipalities showed:

15

middle

bottom

top

Municipalities performing unacceptably

Corruption,

Negative Audits

Poor service delivery

No community engagement

Above average performance

Deliver on developmental mandate

Innovation

Basics being performed

Acceptable service delivery

Functioning below acceptable level

KEY FEATURES OF THREE CATEGORIES

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COGTA

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BACK TO BASICS:

PROGRAMME OF ACTION

2

1 Get all municipalities out of the dysfunctional

state

No one below the middle path

OUR APPROACH

3 Support and incentivise municipalities on the top

path to remain there

Targeted and brisk response to corruption and fraud

Support municipalities on the middle

path to progress to the top path

And stay there

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No service

failures

where there are, restore them urgently!

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BACK TO BASICS Providing a basket of basic services

Cutting the grass

Fixing leaking

taps

Keeping the

municipality

clean

20

BACK TO BASICS Providing a basket of basic services

Repairing

Pavements

Working street lights

Patching

potholes

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WHAT DOES “GETTING THE BASICS

RIGHT” MEAN?

1

Putting

people first:

let’s listen

and

communicate

Adequate

and

community-

oriented

service

provision

Good

governance

and

transparent

administration

Robust

institutions

with skilled

and capable

staff

Sound

financial

management

& accounting

1 2 3 4 5

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1. PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

• All people have a right to dignity and decent living

and working conditions

• Efficient service delivery – water, sanitation, refuse

removal, clean environment

• Be responsive and solve breakdowns or complaints

with urgency

• Communication with communities

– Participatory planning and budgeting

– Regular information about services

– Accessibilty of municipality

– Responses to petitions, queries and complaints

• Be seen to address allegations of fraud and

corruption

•

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2. EFFICIENT SERVICE DELIVERY

• comprehensive infrastructure plans for municipalities; • ensure that municipalities develop new infrastructure at a faster pace • improve operations and maintenance of existing infrastructure to

ensure continuity of service provision. • development and implementation of maintenance plans in

municipalities; – Enforce the 7% operational budget allocation toward infrastructure

maintenance; • audit the state of infrastructure in municipalities ; • develop systems to monitor service delivery interruptions; • support to municipalities spending below 80% of MIG; • support municipalities to acquire relevant skills for infrastructure

management;

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3. GOOD GOVERNANCE

Clear delineation

of roles and

responsibilities

Functional

structures

Oversight in place

– without any

interference

Proper system of

delegation to

ensure functional

administration

Transparency,

accountability and

community

engagement

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4. SOUND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Proper record keeping and

production of annual financial statements.

Credit control, internal controls and

increase the revenue base

Cut wasteful expenditure

including monitoring overtime

Functional Supply Chain Management

structures with appropriate oversight

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• Serious consequences for corruption, fraud and

maladministration.

• Action will be taken in this regard, including

asset forfeiture and civil claims (lifestyle

audits…?)

• Greater transparency and scrutiny for supply

chain management

• Private sector and civil society must assist

ACTING AGAINST CORRUPTION

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5. ROBUST AND RESPONSIVE

ADMINISTRATION

Competent and capable people and

performance management

Functional delegations

Regular interactions

between management

and organised

labour

Shared scarce skills services at

district level.

Realistic organograms

aligned to municipal

development strategy

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• Regular ward report backs by councillors

• Clear engagement platforms with civil society

• Transparent, responsive and accountable

• Regular feedback on petitions and complaints

5. SUBSTANTIVE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

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Continue to promote a

harmonious relationship

between traditional

leadership and local

government.

Participate in IDP’s and community consultation processes –

including land use schemes.

Facilitate access to land for

development purposes.

TRADITIONAL LEADERS

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SERVICE DELIVERY

INTERMINISTERIAL COMMITTEE (IMC)

President JG Zuma has established the inter-

ministerial task team on service delivery. This is led

by Minister Pravin Gordhan

The purpose of the Task Team

is to fast-track service delivery in areas where there are

bottlenecks, quickly respond to areas where there are service

delivery problems and ensure that general service delivery is

improved.

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Spatial planning –SPLUMA requires

coordination in land use planning

Public Transport is nationally

coordinated but locally

implemented

Human settlements needs

coordination betwn delivery

agencies & municipalities

National demands not matched by

municipalities capacity to

deliver Government Departments and Agencies

delivery at local not coordinated

Coordination in the entire water and sanitation

value chain

INTERGOVERNMENTAL DELIVERY

COORDINATION

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INTERGOVERNMENTAL PLANNING

• Coordinated planning and delivery is critical for

service provision, the creation of clean and

‘green’ public spaces and overall decent living

and working conditions.

• Strong collaborative skills are needed for well-

managed and coordinated implementation.

• IDPs must become joint National, Provincial and

Local action plans, to avoid fragmented planning

and promote intergovernmental liaison for

developmental outcomes.

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IMPLEMENTING

Back to Basics

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OUR OBJECTIVE: Building Capable Local

Government Ensure healthy political / admin

interface

Infrastructure audits, maintenance plans &

expenditure

Ensure capable and competent staff

Build institutional systems and processes

Capacity building for councillors

Develop and implement Audit and

Post Audit Action plans.

Effective credit control and debt collection policies

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Differentiated Approach: Actions

Doing Well

At Risk Dysfunctional

• Light touch monitoring

• Minimise additional

regulatory burden

• Delegate additional

functions

• Support to enable

networking best practice

exposure

• Free to make own

compliant appointments

• Unallocated block grants

and participation in City

Support / Rural Support

Programmes

• Medium intensity monitoring

• Oversee effective

performance of functions

• Close supervision of service

delivery with targeted

interventions

• Capacity building based on

diagnosis of gap

• Oversee all appointments, and

COGTA participate in process

of Section 57 Appointments.

• Conditional grant with regular

monitoring and reporting

• Intensive monitoring with high

degree of oversight

• Intervene in terms of Sections

55, 139 and 155 (7) of the

Constitution

• Intervene to guarantee

minimum standards, where

necessary functions removed /

suspended and performed by

third parties

• Build basic administrative

capacity.

• COGTA assumes the

recruitment function, including

appointing administrators and

S57 Managers.

• Where necessary channel

funding for services via third

party agencies.

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Performance monitoring & intervention

Data

integration

Realtime

Dashboard

Analysis

Intervention

Impact

monitoring

An integrated data system which is usable and provides useful

information

?

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Investigations and Interventions

Coordinate law enforcement over fraud and corruption

Act against incompetent senior management

Act against improper SCM

Aim for no disclaimers

!

!

!

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Timeline – next 4 months

OCT

NOV

DEC

JAN

This will become the

monthly dashboard that must be

submitted in 1st week of every

month.

• Pilot dashboard reports produced

• Misconduct and Competency Databases launched

• Demarcation begins

• National operations formalised

• First midyear analysis of functionality and interventions

• 6-month review

• Model for strong districts finalised

• All B2B indicators completed

• Dashboard initialisation

• Analysis of dashboard reports

• Regulations developed

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Policy Review

Strengthening district municipalities

Review unviable municipalities

Procedures to implement differentiation - “one-size-fits-all”

a

b

c

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A SET OF NON- NEGOTIABLES

1. Put people and their concerns first;

2. Create conditions for decent living;

3. Look for opportunities to increase economic activity

and widen the revenue base;

4. Cut wastage, spend public funds prudently;

5. Good governance;

6. Maintain infrastructure and budget for this;

7. Constant contact with communities;

8. No failures in services – or restore with urgency;

9. Hire competent staff; and

10. Use CWP to create job opportunities and improve

living conditions of communities.

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THANK YOU

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