THE ROAD TO 2026:
BUILDING A CAPABLE LOCAL GOVERNMENT Ethical and accountable leadership is needed to ensure good governance in municipalities in the next five years, writes Tiisetso Tlelima
T
he leadership sets the tone at the top of any municipality, says Tsakani Maluleke, Auditor-General (AG). “If a municipality’s leaders are unethical, have a disregard for governance, compliance and control, and are not committed to transparency and accountability, it will filter through to the lower levels of the municipality. Inevitably, a culture of poor discipline, impunity and nondelivery will develop.” To restore good governance in municipalities, Maluleke believes that municipal managers and their senior managers need to focus on the financial and performance management of the municipality. Senior managers should significantly improve the processes and controls to ensure that municipal objectives are achieved through good planning, people management, project management, monitoring, and effecting consequences. Basic control disciplines to prevent, detect and correct errors, transgressions, noncompliance and poor performance should be prioritised. “Municipal managers should create an environment in which accountability, high performance and ethical behaviour can flourish,” explains Maluleke. Municipal managers can do so by setting an example and ensuring that enough competent and committed people are employed and perform their work within a set of rules defined in policies and procedures.
REGRESSION IN AUDIT OUTCOMES “In the past five years, the best practices at municipalities that performed well included a stable leadership that is committed to a strong control environment and effective governance. Continuous monitoring of audit action plans to timeously address any audit findings and a proactive approach to dealing with emerging risks were also common features at these municipalities,” says Maluleke. “Unfortunately, our 2019/2020 general report narrates a story of how the efforts of these diligent municipalities have been overshadowed by the overall regression in audit outcomes under the outgoing administration.” Mohammed Lorgat, national programme director: Municipal Audit Support at SALGA, concurs that at an overall level the audit outcomes picture for local government has regressed during the 2016 to 2021 term. “COVID-19 added to some of the challenges, but there was also around 10 per cent of municipalities that, during every audit cycle in this term, managed to perform excellently and maintain clean audit status,” he says. Lorgat cites the lack of accountability and consequence management as key factors that have led to the regression. There were too many instances during the current term of office
“Municipal managers should create an environment in which accountability, high performance and ethical behaviour can flourish.” – Tsakani Maluleke
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VOICE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
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where it was identified that municipalities were acting in contravention of or noncompliance to applicable legislation without any logical or plausible reasoning for doing so. The lack of accountability and consequence management also made it easier for those who were acting inappropriately to get Tsakani away with it.
Maluleke
ACCOUNTABILITY AND CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMENT MUST BE PRACTISED How can the incoming administration turn around this poor performance? According to Lorgat, the additional powers conferred upon the AG through the amended Public Audit Act will assist in driving improved accountability and consequence management. “In addition, SALGA has come out publicly through the SALGA National Executive Committee and made it very clear that if accountability and consequence management is not exercised by the political and administrative leadership in municipalities, then SALGA will take the necessary steps to ensure that accountability and consequence management is extracted from affected municipalities.”
SUSTAINABLE LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS MUST BE SOUGHT Maluleke states that local government cannot be turned around through short-term solutions; long-term solutions that are sustainable to maintain good governance systems are needed. In some
ISSUE 36
2021/09/30 11:26 AM
