By Zibonele Ntuli
PUBLIC Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi says service delivery backlogs still exist in key areas that affect the daily lives of people regardless of progress made.
Speaking at a media briefing in Cape Town today, Ms Fraser-Moleketi said uneven municipal capacity was the greatest risk to municipal performance and equitable service provision over the medium term.
"Where these backlogs coincide with poor municipal capacity the result is service failure and government that is incapable of meeting its goals," she said.
She said local government had critical problems in acquiring and retaining skills of professionals, senior management and technicians with priority skills such as technical skills, communication, ICT and financial management having been identified.
She said a two-year engagement programme called Project Consolidate, aimed at finding new, practical and impact-oriented modes of engaging for both national and provincial government, had profiled 136 municipalities in need of support.
"The ministry and the department visited all provinces individually to discuss the objectives and rollout of Project Consolidate."
Also various private sector, parastatal, donor and NGO stakeholders have been engaged to solicit their support in this regard.
She added that an inter-ministerial committee and a national advisory working group consisting of the captains on industry and parastatals had been established to advise the Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi.
She explained that all provinces had put appropriate political oversight and technical project management capacity in place.
"A final national high-level action plan for Project Consolidate will be finalised by March and will be submitted to Cabinet for noting."
Comprehensive progress reports on Project Consolidate will be submitted to Cabinet on a six-monthly basis for the next two years commencing in June this year, she said.
In order to ensure that Project Consolidate succeeded, national departments should strategically and operationally support municipalities to develop the capacity to perform their constitutional mandate.
"They must also allocate dedicated personnel to the Project Consolidate initiative. An audit will be undertaken to assess government's capacity to sustain implementation of Project Consolidate.
"For the success of Project Consolidate, greater co-ordination still remains instrumental amongst national departments," she said.
Source: BuaNews
Presentation for Seminar
