DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT MODEL

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AUDITORS IN THE DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT MODEL’S SUCCESS

Tumelo Letlojane

Since its adoption five years ago, the District Development Model (DDM) has seen a significant improvement in intergovernmental relations (IGR) between the national, provincial and local governments through the implementation of the One District, One Budget, One Plan strategy.

The alignment of budgets and Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of district and local municipalities aims to bring about positive change in governments and meet the service delivery needs of communities around all spheres of government.

The aim of the DDM is to have a seamless coordinated planning and execution of government programmes, primarily with regard to the district-level implementation of service delivery budgets, integrated development plans, and basic services such water and sanitation.

The duplicate budgets and projects will be a thing of the past since all planning and budgeting will be done in accordance with the DDM as mandates in terms of the "One District, One Approach, One plan, One budget" strategy.

The DDM promises to be a game changer in how government conducts business

With the Support of the United Nations (UN), the DDM is promising to be a game changer in how government conducts business. South Africa is making progress towards realising the ideals of being a capable, economically

enabling state in line with the National Development Plan. In the past financial years, the AuditorGeneral of South Africa (AGSA) has shown concern over the poor performances in local government due to inherent incapacity to plan, inability to coordinate and deliver on service delivery and developmental targets. South Africa is following in the footsteps of countries such as Ethiopia and Ghana who have successfully implemented similar models.

The reputation promise/mandate of the AGSA is such that it provides public confidence and a clear distance approach to progressive and effective audits. The AGSA has a constitutional mandate and, as the supreme audit institution (SAI) of South Africa, it exists to strengthen our country’s democracy by enabling oversight, accountability and governance in the public sector through auditing, thereby building public confidence. Accountability and clear targets with regards to Implementation of DDM assists the government in implementing DDM.

With their skills and expertise, the AGSA has the power both mandated and through standards of Audit to play an oversight role on the auditing of processes leading to effective implementation of the DDM. A performance management programme must be designed, and regulations to monitor the model must also be put into effect.

The audit methodology test

The audit methodology must test the implementation of DDM as this will strengthen accountability and governance in the public sector. The states would benefit by having AGSA as a stakeholder in order to have control and evaluation of the successful implementation.

Performance agreements of those charged with government duties must include DDM as KPI (Key performance indicator).

In the North West Province, the DDM has been well received with all districts being committed to ensuring its effective implementation.

The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) in the province has been conducting a number of training workshops to capacitate councils as well as monitor the implementation of the DDM. KwaZulu-Natal has also seen great success in the implementation of DDM with Sukuma Sakhe – a continuous interaction between government and the community to come together to achieve the 12 National Outcomes - and other provinces are also well on their way to full implementation.

DDM will lead to significant regime change within government

Audit Methodologies must reflect on the issues of providing value to municipalities and departments. The successful implementation of DDM might have a significant reduction on material irregularities in municipalities. Consequence management must be central in measuring the performance of senior managers in all spheres of government.

The vision is to have One plan, One Budget, One Approach - an integrated approach to delivering excellent quality services to the people. The regime change might lead to a possible debate on consolidative audits and streamlining of audit processes for effective results. There might be a need for a centralised audit which will reduce budget constraints and all the complexities that sometimes affect the quality of the audit process.

Government auditors will have to provide a holistic ‘top-down’ approach to ensure compliance at all levels and spheres of government. Reactive audits should be a thing of the past and potential issues must be identified at IDP level.

A need analysis must be conducted as part of the environmental scanning to ensure the identification of risks. Government auditors are going to be key in ensuring that there is objective assurance, contributing value to the municipalities and a systematic disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.

One plan, One Budget, One Approach!

Letlojane is a *SAIGA Associate Member, a general tax practitioner and a business accountant in practice (SA)