Economic and Management Sciences

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Browsing Economic and Management Sciences by Subject "accountability"

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    The responsiveness of local government in the Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality
    (University of the Free State, 2023) Baloyi, Vonani Ashed Bianca; Du Plessis, L. M.; Biljohn, M. I. M.
    Despite several reforms over twenty-nine years, such as fostering citizen participation in local government affairs, the responsiveness of local government remains a continued problem in the South African landscape. The ability of governments globally, specifically local governments, to stay responsive to the service delivery needs of their citizenry has become fundamental to addressing increasing demands from citizens, societal challenges and institutional ills (including maladministration, corruption, lack of capacity and incompetence). Responsiveness, which is considered the ability to satisfy an expressed need, preference or value of citizens, is considered fundamental to effective and accountable governance. Thus, this situation warrants an investigation of local government responsiveness in South Africa. The primary focus of this study is the Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality. Through a qualitative research design, this study investigates the responsiveness of the Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality to citizens’ service delivery needs. The findings show that successful government responsiveness during service delivery depends on the local government exercising its leadership, facilitating citizen participation, being transparent to all stakeholders concerned with service delivery, and having the citizens and stakeholders hold its officials accountable. Significantly, this study found that South Africa does indeed have sufficient legislative frameworks to guide local government officials and other interrelated government spheres in addressing service delivery challenges. The study thus, proposes a conceptual framework for enhancing local government responsiveness to citizens’ service delivery needs. Through this framework, the existing legislative frameworks and the integration of citizens in local government decision-making processes can be combined. Furthermore, the findings shed light on the practical implications for local government officials and administrators, as well as citizens of collaborations with cross-sector stakeholders aimed at achieving enhanced local government responsiveness during service delivery.
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    Suppliers' perception on transparency of Free State public procurement
    (University of the Free State, 2022) Marumo, Molelekwa; Crous, C.
    This study evaluates the perception of suppliers on the transparency of the public procurement in the Free State Province paying attention on the pre-tender stage activities. The study further reviews the public procurement legal framework and processes to contextualise relationships between transparency and participation, competition and accountability. Public procurement has been critiqued for its highest levels of non-compliance to ethical standards, a lack of standardisation as well as lack of transparency of processes. The allegations of unethical relationships between suppliers and government officials led to the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture. The Zondo Commission was tasked with, among others, investigating how public procurement systems were flouted to benefit powerful individuals. To collect data in respect of this study, a structured interviews were administered to a total of 17 active participants in the supplier database, from planned 25 participants who are conducting their business within the boundaries of the Free State. Again, literature in the form of government reports, public procurement legislation and articles was reviewed to contextualise public procurement processes and concepts. An analysis of 14 of the 17 participants shows that there is no standardised method of communicating pre-tender information to suppliers. Furthermore, suppliers are not familiar with different sets of documents constituting pre-tender information, such as strategic plans, annual performance plans and procurement plans. For example, only three participants suggest having interacted with pre-tender information before tenders were officially advertised. Measures and platforms used by government to communicate invitations to tender are perceived to be cost effective to an extent that they are adequately utilised by all government departments. In conclusion, majority of participants perceive the transparency of public procurement in the Free State to be inconsistent in different stages of tendering. Additionally, the current procurement framework and procedure appear to be preoccupied with the dissemination of procurement information at the tender invitation stage than at the pre-tender stage of procurement. Furthermore, the current measures of communicating procurement information do not support pre-tender information dissemination, automated tendering, evaluation and execution to support the principles of transparency.