Moves by the department of provincial and local government to conduct an assessment at national level of the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of municipalities has boosted the adoption rate of these critical projects.
Presenting the ministry's budget vote to parliament, the minister for provincial and local government Sydney Mufamadi said this intergovernmental effort had led to an IDP adoption rate of 98 percent in the 2006/07 financial year.
This process is consequently leading to assistance being provided to municipalities to fill mission-critical, senior municipal posts in a systematic manner, he said.
Earlier efforts to deploy skilled personnel to local government were also now paying off, said Mufamadi, adding that as of 1 March this year, 297 individuals with specialist skills had been deployed to various municipalities across the country.
Results are also being seen in dealing with another, enduring problem that has been plaguing municipalities: that of revenue collection.
But municipal financial viability and management remains a concern, Mufamadi said, even though interventions by the DPLG to implement effective billing systems at selected municipalities had started to see results.
In 12 municipalities selected as pilot sites for these interventions revenue collection had increased by an average of 21.4 percent with increases ranging from five percent to 60 percent.
The total increase in revenue from these interventions brought an extra R1, 6 billion into municipal coffers over a period of twelve months.
Another area of support for municipalities has been the provision of technical capacity to support infrastructure development.
By 30 November 2006, 42 Project Consolidate municipalities were being supported through this initiative, with 45 deployees in the field.
"We aim to reach as many as 70 municipalities with 90 deployees by the end of this month," the minister added.
A total of 291 infrastructure projects, valued at R1, 5 billion - focusing largely on the roll-out of water and sanitation delivery, are receiving implementation support in various ways, he added.
The Deputy Minister for Provincial and Local Government, Nomatyala Hangana, told MPs later that the current backlog in the bucket sanitation system countrywide was now at 106 873 households.
Government is on track to meet its target of eradicating the system completely by December 2007.
And she added that universal access to water stood at 86 percent of households by April 2007.
Mr Mufamadi added that other interventions by the department included bringing in 51 retired engineers, 45 recent graduates and 99 students to 75 municipalities.
And 130 municipal employees are currently receiving hands-on training, with implementation support being provided for R2, 2 billion worth of water, sanitation and roads infrastructure projects.
But adequate planning was vital, the minister said. "Government across all three spheres must ensure that available fiscal resources do not surpass the capacity for implementation."
In the subsequent debate on the budget, another MP said that "government must declare war" on the phenomenon of municipalities returning unspent funds to National Treasury, which he said was tantamount to a crisis.
Meanwhile, government produced an "investment atlas" of potential private and public sector investment opportunities for urban and rural renewal nodes.
"The Urban Renewal Nodes Investment Atlas identifies 25 investment opportunities, while its rural counterpart identifies 88 investment opportunities, mainly in agriculture, tourism and mining," he said.
And Mufamadi indicated that he was to make a key announcement on the future of the country's provinces when he delivered the budget vote to the National Council of Provinces on June 20.
"Clearly, our well-signalled strategic aim of reducing, by at least 50 percent, levels of poverty by 2014, requires a more rapid rate of forward movement. It also requires something else."
"Experience over the last 13 years of democratic government has produced a logical case for local government policy review and for consideration of steps to establish a coherent policy framework for provincial government."
Source: BuaNews
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