Context
South Africa has difficulties in providing basic public services such as water supply, waste management and public transport. Much of the public services are provided by municipalities. However, their management and control systems are inadequate. In 2014, the South African government formulated the "Back to Basics" principles with the aim of strengthening the capacity of municipalities to provide public services. So far, these principles have not been sufficiently implemented by state structures to ensure transparent, accountable, effective and efficient delivery of services at the municipal level. The Governance Support Programme (GSP) II provides technical, policy and procedural advice to help the South African Government address systemic deficiencies.
Objective
Public institutions and selected municipalities are implementing the back-to-basics principles for a more transparent, accountable, effective and efficient provision of public services at local level.
Approach
GSP II is initially aimed at eight selected partner municipalities in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces. The aim is to continuously extend support to other municipalities throughout the country via the programme's steering structure and national partners.
The programme is divided into three service areas:
(Service A) Strengthening management capacity for the provision of services. The capacity of municipal managers and administrative staff to plan, budget, implement and monitor the provision of services in an integrated way will be strengthened.
(Performance B) Improve municipal public finance and procurement. Activities will focus on improving administrative efficiency and transparency in public procurement and increasing revenues in selected partner municipalities. GSP II works closely with the National Finance Authority in this area.
(Service C) Improve supervision and accountability. The supervisory and accountability bodies for the provision of services and governance will be strengthened, as they are the focal points for the development of an effective local administration to combat corruption. The focus is on the effectiveness of the existing municipal technical committees (e.g. water supply services and waste management) and citizens' access to these facilities.
Results
Numerous topics have been dealt with since the beginning of the programme:
- Together with the National Financial Authority, GSP II has supported three partner municipalities (Ehlanzeni District Municipality, Steve Tshwete Local Municipality and Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality) in understanding and implementing a national reform to promote integration and uniformity of reporting through competence development measures and practical support. In the first year of implementation, 367 staff and council members (an average of 127 per municipality) participated in a series of competence development workshops.
- A study conducted by GSP II on the situation of water management in the Chris Hani District Municipality revealed organisational challenges such as an unclear distribution of roles between actors, insufficiently qualified personnel, poor maintenance and weak governance. A water management education trip to eThekwini (Durban) was then organised with the Municipal Institute of Learning (MILE), involving 77 staff from Amathole District Municipality, City of Mbombela, Chris Hani District Municipality and Joe Gqabi District Municipality. As a result of this educational event, action plans for improved municipal water management are now being implemented in the partner municipalities with the support of GSP II.
- In partnership with the National Financial Authority, GSP II assessed the financial management performance of three partner municipalities. The National Financial Authority underlined the need for automatic compilation and aggregation of the data collected to provide a real-time overview of the financial control capabilities of all local governments. The GSP II provided technical support in developing a web-based financial management capability maturity model (FMCMM) and in migrating the model to a digital platform with input and reporting automation.
- By the end of 2018, 894 government agencies were using the central provider database to make procurement more effective and transparent (procurement of goods and services). Currently, 18,822 procurement professionals can use the database to search for goods and services from 565,590 registered suppliers. A further 102,682 are currently registered. The South African Ministry of Finance estimates that it will save 1 billion Euros in public procurement by introducing the electronic procurement system.
- All 278 South African municipalities and all national and provincial government units (more than 130) now have access to guidelines for the systematic inclusion of HIV/AIDS in the training of civil servants.
- Council members and administrative staff from 13 municipal audit committees are now in a better position to monitor the activities, financial management and performance of these municipalities. The influential audit committees, which can initiate investigations into grievances or financial irregularities, are important for good governance. Together with Rhodes University, the GSP II has developed a competence-based and university-recognised training programme for members of the Audit Committees.