17 July 2007
Gauteng Local Government MEC, Qedani Dorothy Mahlangu, will deliver a
keynote address at the Municipal Finance Summit.
The summit, which is jointly organised by the Gauteng Department of Local
Government and the Provincial Treasury together with the South African Local
Government Association (Salga Gauteng), is aimed at mobilising the various
local government stakeholders and municipal leadership to work together to
develop a programme of action for implementing short and medium term
strategies.
The summit will also discuss a collective agenda of action directed at
further consolidating and building municipal financial sustainability in the
province and in ensuring that municipalities implement their creditor control
measures to recoup the mounting municipal debt.
It will bring together stakeholders from the central government, provincial
government, municipalities and representatives from parastatals and private
institutions.
The key objectives of the summit are, among others, to build a collective
understanding of the state of municipal finance in the province, on the basis
of research activities and municipal inputs and to define a province-wide
programme of action, including critical and urgent actions in the 2007/08 cycle
as well as strategic interventions over the medium term required to support the
development of municipal financial management and viability and graduating
Gauteng municipalities out of Project Consolidate.
The summit will be guided by the following objectives:
* to build a collective understanding of the state of municipal finances in
Gauteng Province on the basis of empirical research, the inputs of
municipalities and value perspectives of stakeholders.
* to establish a framework of action that defines the collective strategies and
terrains of action required in order to respond to the municipal finance
challenges identified.
* to provide a terrain for the sharing of information and knowledge and
establish the framework for future knowledge exchange and flows of financial
information for decision making and evaluative purposes.
The MEC will further outline other mechanisms that will be put in place to
address the existing challenges as far as municipal finance is concerned.
In 2004/05 financial year, only Lesedi and West Rand municipalities received
unqualified audit opinions. However, since the department's effort to ensure
municipalities receive clean audit reports, there has been a marked improvement
in the audit opinions received by municipalities and their entities over the
past two years.
During her budget vote speech at the Gauteng legislature last month,
Mahlangu outlined that the Department of Local Government will assist
municipalities to among others meet the Auditor-General's deadline of their
annual financial statement submission and also to improve their credit
rating.
She also said that the department is working towards ensuring that all
municipalities have functional internal audit units and audit committees in
line with section 165 and 166 of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
Details of the event are as follows:
Date: Thursday, 19 July 2007
Time: 10h00
Venue: Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton
For more information contact:
Themba Sepotokele
Tell: 011 355 5111
Cell: 082 490 9869
Connie Muvunyi
Tel: 011 355 5270
Cell: 082 330 4911
Issued by: Gauteng Department of Local Government
17 July 2007
