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
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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
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Introduction (Cont)
• The assessment was based on following
functional areas:
– Political stability
– Governance
– Service delivery
– Financial Management
– Institutional management
– Community satisfaction
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What are the elements of the
functional areas ?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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:
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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
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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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