April 18, 2005
By Thomas Thale
THE provincial department of local government is gearing up to assist municipalities in the province upgrade the service they render to communities.
Over the next few months the department will provide designated municipalities with skills and in some cases financial resources to improve their capacity, under Project Consolidate.
Qedani Mahlangu, the MEC for local government, on Thursday, 14 April said a study conducted by her department had identified a lack of financial management and project management skills as factors impeding service delivery at many municipalities in the province.
While highlighting the strides made since the amalgamation five years ago of 51 racially exclusive local councils into 15 more viable municipalities, Mahlangu said many challenges remained, prompting her department to intervene.
The interventions to be introduced by the department include:
- Recruiting 200 community development workers in May "to get first-hand information about the needs of the people on the ground";
- Working with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants to recruit retired chartered accountants to train municipal officials in financial management;
- Working with Old Mutual to train officials at some municipalities in project management;
- Drawing on skills from parastatals such as Rand Water and Eskom to enhance capacity at municipalities;
- Instituting disciplinary and criminal actions against officials involved in corrupt activities;
- Assisting struggling municipalities to access the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, which was set up to provide basic services in previously neglected areas;
- Conducting a customer satisfaction survey on the performance of municipalities throughout the province; and
- Embarking on a drive to get municipal employees and government departments to pay rates.
Mahlangu said the municipalities that will benefit from provincial assistance are the City of Johannesburg, Mogale City, Emfuleni, Ekungwini and Mohlakeng.
Billing in Johannesburg
Mahlangu welcomed the decisive interventions made by the City of Johannesburg towards improving its billing and revenue procedures.
Roland Hunter, the acting chief executive officer of the revenue department in Johannesburg, this week announced City plans to establish a new organisation to centralise and improve the administration of billing, revenue collection and clearance certificates. The City appealed for financial assistance and the deployment of 15 specialists to help it resolve its billing challenges.
Describing Johannesburg as a "high capacity municipality", Mahlangu said her department was considering the City's request. "We are currently verifying the proposal from Johannesburg and can only attach the figures once that has been done," she said.
Mahlangu also supported a proposal by Johannesburg to sell R1,5-billion worth of its debtors' book. Hunter had said selling its R7,8-billion debtors' book would enable the City to strengthen its balance sheet and would have benefits in terms of audit opinion and credit rating. Otherwise it accumulated interest and distorted the value of the debtors' book.
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
- Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website
(www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency
(www.joburg.org.za)";
- If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original
article on this website;
- The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
-
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill
in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 |
