The Ministry for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) is aware of the challenges that are being experienced by local municipalities in spending the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.
The challenges were part of the diagnosis in the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS) as adopted by Cabinet in 2009. The diagnosis eventually became part of the portfolio’s five main priorities identified to give effect to the implementation of LGTAS.
Among the problems identified was poor planning related to procurement processes, hence the portfolio prioritises financial management, governance and infrastructure development. In that regard, the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA) was primarily created to assist municipalities with infrastructure planning- related matters.
The MISA's on-going work is intended to assist in tackling these old perpetual bottlenecks of municipalities not spending the MIG in full.
As for human resources- related matters within municipalities, the slow filling of vacancies coupled with recruitment processes that do not attract best candidates as well as suspension of senior officials - especially the CFOs and some critical staff members - remain a challenge.
Initiatives from the ministry talk to these issues. Regulations on Municipal Systems Amendment Act (MSAA) are at an advance stage.
It is just the reconsideration of the bracket that the regulation needs to cover and then issues of recruiting poorly qualified personnel becomes history within municipalities. Political instability in municipalities has also been identified in concurrence with the Auditor- General’s Municipal Audit Outcomes of the previous financial year.
The ministry is aware that in some municipalities - especially Limpopo- municipal managers were suspended without Council delegating functions to any municipal official.
That has a bearing on the progress of ensuring continuous procurement and service provider payment issues. In this regard the ministry is aware of these challenges faced by the municipalities nationwide and is offering support through various statutory mechanisms that are provided for in terms of its mandate.
Interaction with provinces and other intergovernmental relations agents for cooperative governance is facilitated by the ministry to help improve the situation. The Ministry is committed to ensure that local government becomes everybody’s business through the implementation of the LGTAS.
For more information contact:
Dr Nghamula Nkuna
Cell: 071 393 4727
