1 June 2006
By Shaun Benton
Future bonuses for municipal managers are to be capped and will be permissible only for an "outstanding" performance, under new Municipal Performance Management Regulations to be published for public comment today in the Government Gazette.
The director-general of the Department of Provincial and Local Government, Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela, said yesterday that the performance bonuses for municipal managers under the new regulations may range from between five per cent to 14 per cent of their annual remuneration packages.
This will put a limit on some of the more outlandish bonuses that have been awarded in the past, which have amounted to as much as 37 per cent of a manager's annual packages.
Msengana-Ndlela, along with the Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi, were briefing the media on the content of the new performance agreements that the minister had earlier indicated would be enforced at local government level in order to bring effect to more efficient service delivery.
However, no limit has been placed on the overall pay packages of municipal managers and these would remain market-related and in line with what a specific municipality, in consultation with residents, expected from these officials in terms of implementing integrated development plans, Mufamadi said.
"It would be inappropriate to take away from municipalities the responsibility for establishing salary packages."
He added that it was important for municipalities and the communities they served to determine the financial implications of retaining the quality of management required.
The regulations build on lessons from Project Consolidate - the intervention measures by national government to assist over 130 weak and poor-performing municipalities that were brought into effect last year - and a five-year local government review, and would take effect at the beginning of the municipal financial year that starts on July 1.
The 30-day period from the gazetting of the regulations governing the "mission-critical posts" of municipal managers today was to provide for public comment, said Mufamadi.
Overall objectives of the new employment and performance regulations for municipal managers is to provide a uniform framework while noting the different types and different needs of municipalities that give rise to the desired generic performance agreements that South Africans will see in the future.
And according to Msengana-Ndlela, they form part of "strengthening the approach towards a single public service" that more closely aligns the national, provincial and local spheres of government.
To eliminate potential conflicts of interest and to provide for cleaner government, municipal managers would have to disclose details of their financial interests, interests in land and property, personal gains and rewards and gifts and hospitality received, she said.
It is this disclosure that "talks to good governance", she added.
On top of this, performance agreements between municipal managers and councils would have to be signed within 60 days of the resumption of duty, and these agreements would have to be informed by the municipal Integrated Development Plan drawn up in consultation with the community, the new regulations stipulate.
Key performance areas of performance agreements would also take into account basic service delivery and infrastructure needs, municipal transformation and institutional development, municipal financial viability, local economic development and good governance.
Good governance with safeguards against corrupt practices was one of the key tenets of the new employment regime, as was community participation - generally through ward committees and councillors - and accountability, ultimately lending themselves to the "stabilisation of the political and administrative components of municipalities, reporters were told.
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