By Ndaba Dlamini
JOBURG'S progress in dealing with billing and revenue issues has impressed Sydney Mufamadi, the minister for provincial and local government.
"The steps the City has taken to address their revenue issues, including the billing problems, impressed me," Mufamadi said.
He was speaking after meeting Executive Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo; Parks Tau, the mayoral committee member responsible for finance; City Manager Pascal Moloi; and Roland Hunter, the chief executive in the City's revenue department, earlier this month.
The meeting was held to brief Mufamadi on the progress that had been made in resolving the billing and revenue problems afflicting the City of Johannesburg.
"I was briefed on their Programme Phakama and am pleased that Project Consolidate will be contributing to the implementation of some of that work," the minister said.
Programme Phakama is the City's plan to restructure the revenue function and establish a single revenue management value chain. Through Project Consolidate, the City is working closely with the national government to find solutions to its revenue and billing challenges.
Mufamadi said Project Consolidate proved that the principle of collective responsibility and accountability for municipal performances crossed the spheres of government.
"The City's revenue and billing challenges are indeed challenges of government as a whole."
The national government recently appointed Tsogang Sebina as a service delivery facilitator to work with the City specifically on its municipal billing and revenue systems.
Mufamadi said he believed Johannesburg's efforts and Project Consolidate would boost the generally poor image of local government.
"Finding creative solutions to issues such as poverty - as Joburg has done with its Special Cases Policy - is something I appreciate because the challenges we face cannot be tackled individually."
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