Transcript Slide 1

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LG Week
31 July - 03 August
Building the Capacity of LG to
Accelerate Service Delivery
Session 3: 31 July 2012
Cllr S. Mashilo – NEC member &
Chairperson of MID Working Group of SALGA
1
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Outline
• Introduction
• Problem Statement
• Key Issues
• Recommendations
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1. Introduction
• The Constitution envisions a public service that is professional,
efficient, development-oriented, impartial in the provision of services,
responsive to the needs of people, accountable, transparent and
representative of the South African population.
• Within a corporative governance context, LG is a critical component
of this value chain envisaged by the Constitution and as the key site
of delivery and development.
• Undoubtedly, a well-capacitated LG system is necessary to fulfill this
constitutional promise.
• Building capacity for LG to accelerate service delivery is an objective
that must be relentlessly pursued, with equal measure of support &
coordination required to yield visible results.
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2. Problem Statement
• In the recent past there has been much media focus on service delivery
failures, civil unrest, general mismanagement, poor financial
management and audit outcomes.
• Much hype has also surrounded the skills shortages, corruption and
abuse of state resources, labour unrest and political infighting, many of
which have resulted in some form or another of targeted support or
intervention by provincial or national government.
•
This state of affairs has also contributed to the mooting of and in some
instances creation of special initiatives aimed at responding to the
capacity and performance needs of munis such as Operation Clean
Audit, Business - Adopt a Municipality, National Treasury Minimum
Competency Levels, the Single Public Service Project etc, all with a
critical objective of capacity building along with other goals.
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2. Problem Statement
• Significant financial resources have been poured by govt into
capacity building initiatives.
• Little empirical data that has examined if these financial
investments have translated into increased capacity and
performance of LG.
• This reality and the fact there still exists growing concerns about
the overall performance of the sector implies that the agenda of
building the capacity of municipalities is far from being
accomplished and requires attention.
• It is against the above background that this presentation focuses
on two key aspects of successfully building the capacity of
municipalities to accelerate service delivery.
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3. Key Issues
• For LG meaningful and successful capacity building starts with recognizing
that all the three components (individual, organizational and institutional)
need to be addressed in a coordinated and sequenced manner.
– It is not merely about attempting to deal with visible symptoms and in the
process overlook the underlying capacity challenges so that in long - term
capacity building is not designed to the particular needs of munis within a
macro environment.
• This reinforces the need to invest in people - in technical, management and
leadership skills; in the improvement of the skills of political leadership for
better oversight outcomes and for more creative responses as well as, in
certain instances, considering shared services options.
• This is also part of the reason that SALGA is championing the
professionalization of the human resource service in the sector within a well
defined and enabling policy framework.
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3.1 Strategic Focus Areas
to enable Cap Building
There are 5 strategic priorities that, in our view, need to be
addressed:
1) Leadership Attraction and Retention: there must be a
concerted effort and ingrained culture in municipalities to recruit,
retain and develop the best available talent available and skills
especially at leadership level.
2) Performance Management: an environment of responsiveness,
high performance and clear accountability must be created and
fostered such that it becomes part of the DNA of the LG system.
Rewards and remuneration must be linked to performance and the
tangible attainable of service delivery or development outcomes.
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3.1 Strategic Focus Areas
to enable Cap Building
3) Culture: a people-centered culture of service delivery and customer care
along the lines of Batho Pele principles must be engendered and
institutionalized from strategic levels down to the lowest practical level of
service delivery responses e.g. introducing behavior & service charters.
4) Planning and Governance: by ensuring that planning, governance
structures, people, processes, systems, infrastructure and oversight
mechanisms are optimal and aligned to the mandate of the municipalities, as
defined by a realistic and credible Integrated Development Plan and
applicable legislation; and
5) Financial Sustainability and Management: by ensuring that economic and
financial sustainability and prosperity of municipalities, recognizing it's
development mandate to help facilitate growth of the local economy and the
creation of jobs is underpinned by a sound financial management
environment.
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3.2 Professionalisation of
Municipalities
• The need to professionalise the municipal administration has been
identified as one of the means of addressing institutional performance
and service delivery challenges faced by this sphere of government.
• There is an existing collaboration arrangement between COGTA and
SALGA to give effect to this idea which has produced a concept
paper that is aimed at exploring, amongst others, different options
and approaches to professionalize LG and the development of an
integrated and coherent implementation framework for achieving this.
• Initiatives undertaken thus far have been mainly focused in legislated
minimum competencies and performance standards for senior
managers with very little attention being paid to a clear, coordinated,
coherent and commonly accepted framework for professionalisation.
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3.2 Professionalisation of
Municipalities
• This has been further complicated by different role players with different
perspectives and priorities and quite clearly different understandings of
what professionalisation entails.
• This is exemplified in the more regulatory nature of COGTAs approach,
and the even more pronounced one by DPSA in its proposals for
achieving the single public service, compared to a much more nuanced
approach advocated by SALGA ie. the non-statutory association model.
• Despite the marked differences in approaches and conceptual thought
leadership, considerations are emerging in the collaborative processes,
which are providing the scope for the adoption of clear yet flexible
implementation measures, that can work in tandem with complementary
legislation and the promotion of ethics as one of the most important
pillars of HR professionalism.
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3.2 Professionalisation of
Municipalities
• It is safe to argue that some form of hybrid multi-layered model is the most
appropriate approach, bearing in mind the developmental LG context :
– The 1st is the Generic Qualifications Approach where govt introduces
qualifications and sets the standards that are not specific to LG but can
be used by LG, since they are both applicable to the public and private
sector.
– The 2nd is the Performance Management Systems Approach where the
performance of officials is planned, reviewed, improved and rewarded
without necessarily emphasizing entry requirements and govt does so by
enacting legislation prescribing a framework for performance
management e.g. DPLG 2006 Municipal Performance Regulations.
– The 3rd is the Standards Setting Approach wherein a system ito which
standards for quality & ethics of LG officials are set, with compliance
ensured by national government ie NT Minimum Competency regs.
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3.2 Professionalisation of
Municipalities
– The 4th is the Statutory Association Approach which follows the
traditional method adopted by the erstwhile Town Clerks
dispensation which makes it compulsory for registration to a
professional body to qualify for employment.
– The 5th is the Non-Statutory Association Approach which revolves
around professional associations operating as private associations
who do not enjoy a statutory public recognition.
– Finally, we have the short-term deployment model which relates to
the deployment of experts on a short term basis to fix capacity
problems in targeted municipalities, such as the erstwhile Siyenza
Manje programme now incorporated into the Municipal
Infrastructure Support Agency of DCOG (MISA).
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3.2 Professionalisation of
Municipalities
• In sum, we need a more integrated framework for the professionalisation of
LG. The principles and needs parameters that should underpin such a
model include, among others:
– the need for a commonly agreed understanding and definition of
professionalism,
– the need for a differentiated approach,
– the need for provincial and national support,
– the need to clarify scope of professionalism,
– the need for clearer lines of responsibility between elected and appointed
officials,
– the need for a stronger role for professional bodies,
– the need for a coordinated framework and implementation for LG
Education and Training (including in the approach followed by SALGA in
establishing and operating the LG Leadership Academy or Virtual College).
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4. Recommendations
• Capacity building cannot be underpinned by a 'one size fits all'
approach; a significant degree of differentiation and flexibility is
required in terms of the application of these approaches and
initiatives.
• Equally so, capacity building does not only mean training or training
councillors and/or officials, undertaking of only accredited training,
the delivery of more training programmes, when the manifest result
is 'ticking off' boxes on the compliance ‘to do list'.
• Lack of capacity must at all material times be distinguished from a
failure to lead, plan, exercise authority, fulfill accountability and
generally take responsibility for required action on the part of
persons in authority positions.
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4. Recommendations
• By the same token, we must recognise that there are numerous key players
in the LG space and that LG alone cannot achieve the objective of well
capacitated municipalities.
• Instead, with more effective coordination of the plethora of capacity building
initiatives through functional IGR, dynamic partnerships and stakeholder
engagement, the goal of a capacitated and performing LG sector can be
collectively realised.
SALGA invites delegates to:
• debate the issues and proposals for consideration set out as consideration
points; and
• assist in the formulation of recommendations which will address the
challenges identified and facilitate a conducive framework for building the
capacity of LG to accelerate service delivery.