The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) said they will do everything possible through the avenues available to perform an oversight role on failing municipalities.
The KZN municipalities came under the spotlight over management issues and the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). The Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) presented the local government audit outcomes of the MFMA to Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and the Portfolio Committee on Cogta, on Tuesday.
Nomalungelo Mkhize, the AGSA Business Unit Leader in KZN, said they had seen an improvement in some of the municipalities but were concerned about their reliance on consultants which amounted to R220 million, down R20m from the previous financial years.
Mkhize said irregular expenditure also decreased from R6.2 billion to R5.7bn. The AGSA gave a brief overview of the material irregularities that have been resolved, where appropriate action is being taken and where there was a process of assessing action. The AGSA also found that key infrastructure projects in the province were delayed because of poor management and some contractors were not qualified or capable of performing the required work leading to substandard work.
Marlaine Nair, MPL: KZN Cogta portfolio committee chairperson, said each municipality is required to submit an annual performance report. Nair said that apart from the AGSA audit outcomes, these reports give them a clear picture of what is going on in municipalities. Nair said that Scopa and Cogta are limited in terms of oversight of municipalities.
“I have requested these for the portfolio committee and we will scrutinise them as part of our oversight role. We have to hold Cogta to account for failing municipalities,” Nair said.
Kirsch Bezuidenhout, a senior legal advisor for Parliamentary Services, said that Scopa does not exercise any direct oversight over municipalities. Bezuidenhout said exercise of oversight extends to departments like Treasury and to Cogta who then in terms of the municipal pieces of legislation are supposed to exercise oversight over municipalities. He said each of these departments have different programs that are specialists in areas of how municipalities should function optimally.
Verna Benjamin, Cogta legal advisor said Cogta exercises direct oversight over local government and the Cogta portfolio committee will coordinate these engagements and hold the provincial executive to account in respect of their oversight of these underperforming municipalities. Benjamin said they need to start with the annual performance plan of the department.
“We really need to engage and interrogate those department targets so that we can ensure that the end of the day there is going to be an improved achievement of targets as pertaining to the performance of municipalities,” she said.
“The rationale here is to prevent these kinds of audit findings becoming repeated. While we strengthen our oversight over the department it will filter down to better performance in terms of the municipalities. Everybody wants to see a good outcome but we need to do so within our respective competencies. We want to see a turnaround strategy of ailing municipalities,” Benjamin stated.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za
