Service delivery was at the centre of North West Premier Professor Job Mokgoro’s meeting with the provincial leadership.
At the meeting on Thursday, Mokgoro who was sworn into office in June, told MECs, Mayors, Chairpersons of Boards, Heads of Department and Chief Executive Officers that the fragmented manner in which the government has tended to work should end.
“We are one government and if municipalities do not do well, we all have to take responsibility as government,” he said at the meeting held in Rustenburg.
The meeting also heard from the Coordinating Council which received a report on the outcome of Premier Mokgoro’s engagement with public servants across the province’s four districts.
“The issues raised revolve around the conditions of service of public servants and the need to assess the health of government buildings,” said the provincial government.
It further added that departments and municipalities would on a monthly basis submit progress reports on how they are resolving the issues raised by public servants.
At the meeting, the Coordinating Council updated municipalities on Section 100 100(1) (b) Constitutional Intervention and section 137 Municipal Finance Management Act Intervention.
The interventions placed eight municipalities which face several challenges under administration. Namely these municipalities are:
- Kagisano Molopo Local Municipality
- Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality
- Ditsobotla Local Municipality
- Kgetleng Rivier Local Municipality
- Maquasi Hills Local Municipality
- Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality
- Naledi Local Municipality
- Mahikeng Local Municipality
The challenges faced by the municipalities include a lack of internal controls in place to prevent, detect and report unauthorized, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure; poor revenue collection which impacts on the ability to pay creditors (such as water boards and Eskom) on time and a lack of administrative capacity due to high vacancy levels.
Progress report on section 100 intervention
The Premier’s Coordinating Council also received the Inter Ministerial Task Team’s (IMTT) progress report on the North West Section 100 intervention.
Administrators for departments which are under Section 100(i)(b) were appointed as accounting officers on 10 July 2018 following the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the Premier and the co-ordinator of the IMTT, Minister 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 R350 million 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) on Science, Technology and Innovation for Municipalities (STI4MUN).
The presentation focused on areas where the CSIR can support the province. These areas include water and sanitation, roads, storm water and transport and solid waste management, among others.
Mokgoro also welcomed the Development Bank of South Africa’s (DBSA) offer to assist municipalities on a host of issues that could see them improving service delivery to communities across the province. - SAnews.gov.za
