MEC for Finance, Ms. Motlalepula Rosho, recently engaged MEC Mothibedi Kegakilwe of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA) on infrastructure expenditure to date as well as the implementation protocol on the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) between the two departments.

The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs overall expenditure as end July 2019 is 16.12% instead of targeted 25% expenditure, and expenditure for Department of Human Settlements as end July 2019 is at 25.3%.

MEC Rosho said that “Provincial Treasury has observed while monitoring spending pattern of the Department of Human Settlements, that there is slow expenditure of infrastructure due to the lack of: monitoring of contracts, integrated planning, forward planning, ineffective project scopes, slow procurement processes, no binding conditions to municipalities on water and sanitation projects and weak Project Management Units (PMUs). Systems within PMU’s are weak and resultantly compromising service delivery.”

She said that going forward, tenders above R10m will be subjected to Provincial Treasury Internal Audit processes to ensure that plan are implemented against set targets.

MEC Kegakilwe expressed his appreciation to the support provided by the Provincial Treasury and acknowledged that poor planning within the department resulted in underperformance on key delivery of services and that it is concerning that value is not derived from use of PMUs considering the amount of funds spent on this function.

He confirmed that consequence management will be implemented to address unsatisfactory oversight by COGHSTA as well as poor delivery of projects by contractors. The two departments resolved to work together to engage the national government for the province to access more funds for provision of water and sanitation services.

On the effective implementation of the MoU, MEC Rosho said that the view is to improve, strengthen, avoid duplication of roles, clarify the collaboration on concurrent municipal finance function as well as coordination support programme of the two departments. The departments have signed an MOU however an implementation plan must be developed to improve the oversight role and address overlapping functions.

The meeting noted that municipalities are currently faced with financial management and governance challenges which are as a result of institutional arrangements as well as disregard for laws and regulations.

MEC Kegakilwe said it is important that the Provincial Treasury and COGHSTA close gaps to ensure that support and interventions are all-inclusive as well as capacitating officials to understand through agreement on collaborated initiatives. The meeting resolved that:

• Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs provide input for consideration on their view on collaborated functional areas;

• MOU should be reviewed on a yearly basis to reinforce and improve the content;

• Officials in Provincial Treasury and COGTA to meet on a monthly basis to reflect on the implementation of the joint programme and collaboration efforts;

• The MEC’s will engage on a quarterly basis to get feedback on the implementation of the MoU by the administration.

-NWPG Treasury

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