In a bid to intensify the fight against corruption, maladministration and fraud within municipalities, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Legislature will this weekend establish the provincial forum with the province's municipalities in order to strengthen oversight and improve accountability at local government level.
The provincial forum follows the formation last year of Municipal Public Accounts Committees (MPACs), which are a local government equivalent of the national and provincial Standing Committees on Public Accounts (SCOPA).
MPACs, just like SCOPAs, will act as a council watchdog over how the public monies are spent at municipal level and also hold the council executive accountable.
All KZN municipalities will this weekend attend a meeting in Durban which will be addressed by Speaker of KZN Legislature Peggy Nkonyeni, Provincial SCOPA chairperson Sipho Nkosi and representatives of the department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
The meeting will also be addressed by representatives of Treasury, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the national Association of Public Accounts Committees (APAC).
Amongst issues to be discussed is the state of MPACs in KwaZulu-Natal especially the challenges that the committees face and what kind of intervention they need in order to be more effective in fighting corruption, fraud and maladministration within municipalities.
"Now that the MPACs have been established in all municipalities, the objective is to find out how are they functioning, what kind of support do they have and what kind of training they have had so far and what kind of training they will need in the future. But more importantly we need to find ways on how are they going to organise themselves to learn from each other and exchange information," said Nkonyeni.
She added that the KZN Legislature has been working very closely with MPACs by inviting the committees to attend SCOPA hearings at the legislature so that they could see how the provincial committee was holding the executive to account.
Provincial SCOPA has also had a number of its hearings held at various municipalities.
The formation of provincial MPACs forum could go a long way in strengthening oversight and accountability at local government level thereby ensuring that public funds are properly accounted for.
The media is invited to attend the workshop and launch of MPACs Forum.
Details are as follows:
Date: 19 January 2013
Time: 08h30
Venue: Elangeni Hotel (Durban)
For more information please contact:
Hon Sipho "KK" Nkosi
KZN Legislature scope Chairperson
Cell: 078 293 2962
Mr Wonder Hlongwa
Medial Liaison Officer
Cell: 082 908 3532
