North West Provincial Government assesses service delivery progress
The North West Provincial Government convened a special Premier’s Coordinating Council on 06 September 2018 which is chaired by Premier Job Mokgoro and attended by MECs, Mayors, Chairpersons of Boards, HODs, Municipal Managers and CEOs.
Premier Job Mokgoro reminded attendees that the provincial government needed to operate in an integrated manner for citizens of the North West Province to feel the impact of services that government delivers to them. Mokgoro said this against the backdrop of an outcry on the fragmented nature in which government has tended to work.
“We are one government and if municipalities do not do well we all have to take responsibility as government.” Said Premier Mokgoro.
Mokgoro further reminded the meeting that the public service is being assessed every five years by the citizens on its performance.
The Coordinating Council received a report on the outcome of Premier Mokgoro’s engagement with public servants in all the four Districts. The issues raised revolve around the conditions of service of public servants and the need to assess the health of government buildings. Departments and Municipalities would on a monthly basis submit progress reports on how they are resolving the issues raised by public servants.
The Coordinating Council updated municipalities on the section 100(1)(b) Constitutional Intervention and section 137 Municipal Finance Management Act Intervention which places eight municipalities under administration. The affected municipalities are:
- Kagisano Molopo Local Municipality
- Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality
- Ditsobotla Local Municipality
- Kgetleng Rivier Local Municipality
- Maquasi Hills Local Municipality
- Ngaka Modiri Molema Distrcit Municipality
- Naledi Local Municipality
- Mahikeng Local Municipality
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 Premier’s Coordinating Council also received the Inter Ministerial Task Team(IMTT) progress report on the North West section 100 intervention
Administrators fo 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).
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.
The Premier’s Coordinating Council also received a presentation from the Council for Science and Industrial Research(CSI) a 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
Premier Mokgoro also welcomed the Development Bank of South Africa’s (DBSA) offer as a partner to assist municipalities on a host of issues that could see them improving service delivery to communities across the North West Province.
Enquiries:
Vuyi Ngesi
Cell: 0797781772
