MEC Kegakilwe on MPACs in the province
The Municipal Public Accounts Committees were established to serve as a platform of sharing experiences, challenges, exchanging best practices and serve as reporting and monitoring structures for the functionality of all MPACs in the province.
This was said by the North West MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Mothibedi Kegakilwe at the recent joint meeting of the Standing Committees on Provincial Public Accounts, Premier Finance, Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs.
“MPACs are council committees established in terms of Section 79 of Municipal Structures Act and they are entrusted with oversight role in municipal financial and non-financial matters”, he said.
MEC Kegakilwe said since the establishment of MPACs in 2012, focus has been on induction of all newly appointed members, support to district and provincial forums, training, development of proto-type annual work plans and oversight reports as a guide to municipalities and continuous training and workshops.
He added that to date, support has been given to MPACs on the readiness on the readiness of compiling oversight and annual reports, dealing with unauthorized, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in line with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and Circular 68, communication on minimum support to MPACs in terms of proposed staff compliment as well as tools of trade.
He said MPACs are still faced with the challenge of being undermined by councilors and administration, lack of tools of trade and support staff, lack of commitment by MPACs and failure by administration to implement recommendations by MPACs. “Municipalities such as Tswaing, Ditsobotla, Mamusa, Maquassi Hills and JB Marks still have a backlog of oversight reports.’’
