The Executive Council of the North West Province held a special meeting on Wednesday 22 August 2018 in Mahikeng and key on its agenda was the diagnostic report on the state of municipalities and progress report on section 100 intervention.
Diagnostic report on the state of municipalities
The Executive Council received a detailed report from the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements which provided a diagnosis of the state of municipalities in the North West Province.
The CSIR also made a presentation on Science, Technology and Innovation for Municipalities. (STI4MUN) The presentation focused on areas where the CSIR can support the province which include :
- Water and sanitation
- Roads, storm water and transport
- Solid waste management
- Energy resources
- Health facilities and services
- Decision making support
- Local Economic Enterprise Development
- Capacity Development
Having received the two presentations, the Executive Council resolved that all the 22 municipalities in the Province require constant monitoring and support. To this end, the Executive Council agreed that a report on the assessment of and support to municipalities will be a standing item in all its meetings.
This will enable the Executive Council to regularly make an informed assessment on the state of municipalities and make informed interventions.
Furthermore, the Executive Council resolved that section 139(1)(b), and section 137 MFMA interventions in the eight (8) identified local municipalities be invoked with effect from 1 September 2018
- Kagisano-Molopo LM
- RamotshereMoiloa LM
- Ditsobotla LM
- Kgetlengrivier LM
- Maquassihills LM
- Ngaka Modiri Molema DM
- Naledi LM
- Mahikeng LM
These municipalities are characterised by serious challenges which include but are not limited to the following:
- Negative Audit Outcomes as a result of quality and failure to implement Post Audit Action Plan;
- Lack of internal controls in place to prevent, detect and report unauthorized, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure;
- Lack of Administrative Capacity due to high vacancy levels especially in senior management;
- Poor revenue collection which impacts on the ability to pay creditors(such as water boards and Eskom) on time;
- Poor Management of conditional grants in particular Municipal Infrastructure Grant.
- There is generally regression of performance by municipalities particularly on Audit Outcomes; Expenditure Management of Municipal Infrastructure Grants and Credit and Debt Management;
- The turnover of municipal senior management affected the expected administrative capacity to drive service delivery and governance improvements.
Progress report on section 100 intervention
The Executive Council also received the Inter Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) progress report on the North West section 100 intervention
Administrators for Departments which are under Section 100(i)(b0 were appointed as Accounting Officers on 10 July 2018 following the signing a Memorandum of Agreement between the Premier and the Co-ordinator of the IMTT, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on the modalities to implement Section 100(i)(a) and 100(i)(b).
The administrators were also introduced to the Executive Council and they are executing their responsibilities in their various departments.
Work has been done in various departments in respect to the following:
- Intervention plans have been set up
- Agreement reached with Unions on the contracts of Community Health Workers
- Process initiated for procurement of essential equipment for Primary Health Care Facilities
- Outstanding payments for Emergency Management Services being processed
- Posts in the Office of the CFO at the Department of Health advertised to mitigate against financial challenges
- The process of the audit finding of R1,1 billion in irregular expenditure has started and it has been possible to remove R350million of the expenditure for learner teaching support material from the irregular amount in the Department of Education
- Irregular contracts are being weeded out, irregular expenditure is being contained and audit findings are being addressed
- Cost effective methods of building schools are being introduced
- Platforms created for instituting recovery plans in the last twelve most distressed municipalities
- And the review of identified Project Management Unit contracts entered upon with various service province.
Enquiries:
Vuyisile Ngesi
Premier Spokesperson
Cell: 079 778 1772
