MEC for Finance Paul Sebegoe called mayors, councillors in Bojanala District to support initiatives put in place to address service delivery challenges and to provide political leadership in their respective municipalities. He further urged politicians to be hands on in running municipalities and hold officials accountable for non delivery of services.
Sebegoe said this during a meeting with councillors and officials of all municipalities in Bojanala district in Rustenburg yesterday. The meeting aimed to perform political oversight on implementation of MFMA by municipalities, discuss service delivery and financial management challenges at municipalities, assess the status of municipalities’ readiness towards clean audit 2014 and identify support programmes by provincial government to municipalities.
The MEC said all in the employ of municipalities must be responsible because the persistent negative audit reports came as a result of amongst others poor leadership, financial mismanagement, unskilled personnel and losing important documents. He further raised a serious concern on the continuous non-spending of Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) whereas there is a dire need for this.
“Bojanala district is rural and we cannot afford to have this grant unspent or redirected towards salaries. Municipalities that have less than 70% of their MIG allocations need to develop and implement practical interventions and expedite expenditure by the end of the financial year,” said MEC. Sebegoe indicated that plans for Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) MIG allocations should already be in place to ensure that expenditure starts at the beginning of the financial year.
Municipalities need competent workforce who will have proper plans in place and ensure that communities receive services,” said Sebegoe. He urged municipalities to come up with action plan that will assist in ensuring that they address all the emphasis of matters raised by the Auditor-General that hampers effective service delivery.
The MEC further pledged continued support and said his department will assist municipalities in Bojanala with the review of 2012/13 Annual Financial Statements. He said a joint program with Auditor General & Local Government and traditional affairs to monitor implementation of audit action plans to avoid repeat findings will be developed.
“Amongst others, resolutions taken include that Finance and Local Government will assist municipalities with collection of government debts; monitor payments for bulk services; compilation of financial recovery plans to all municipalities experiencing cash flow problems and convening a workshop for community development workers and ward committees to ensure functionality of the two structures.”
“Municipalities will be assisted with resolution of disputes with rate-payers associations and bid committees on Supply Chain Management will receive training. Training of officials on budgets and GRAP17 will also be prioritised,” said MEC.
The meeting also resolved that Finance and Local Government will analyse the 2013/14 draft budget and the alignment to Service Delivery Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP) and provide feedback and input on the credibility of the draft budget tabled to council in March 2013.
The analysis for municipalities which were previously placed under Section 139 will be used as a reference point for future implementation of the section. “Sector departments will be involved in future engagements with municipalities so that they assist commitment of capital projects,” said MEC.
Municipalities welcomed the engagement and committed to on time submission of the 2012/13 financial statements, looking into financial systems that will assist in controlling over expenditure; adopting fraud prevention policies and procedures; adopting a culture of forward planning for capital projects; continuously implementing the credit control policies to improve collection rate and appointing skilled personnel.
Municipalities with Asset Registers that are not GRAP compliant will also develop action plan for submission to AG, Finance, Local Government and Traditional Affairs
For enquiries contact:
Ms Kesalopa Gill
Cell: 079 548 6352
Tel: 018 388 3584
E-mail: kgill@nwpg.gov.za
