Enhancing financial compliance through participatory budgeting: a case study of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality
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Date
2018-06
Authors
Bungane, Linda Louisa
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Compliance within the areas of financial management legislation and division of
revenue for improved service delivery has to always speak to each other according to
the integrated Development Plan (IDP), the overall local government legislation and
the Constitution. There Is a relationship between the citizens, public revenue and
officials, as well as politicians that act as 'messengers,' who interface with both the
citizens and the municipalities. For the municipality to be functional, available
resources must be used optimally and for the benefit of the citizens at large. This is
arguably not the case in practice although there are policies, procedures and
legislation in place to ensure that such measures are implemented. There are always
loopholes and challenges that hinder effective implementation due to ignorance,
inadequate control measures and non-compliance in the management of public
resources.
Non-compliance has been prevalent in the public sector, and local government is no
exception, as some officials entrusted with compliance are able to manipulate the
systems in place and engage In corrupt practices. It follows then that inconsistency in
legislative compliance becomes not only a problem in municipal financial
management, but becomes expansive in other avenues and legislation. The study will
focus on local government financial management and finding a synergy between such
management and division of revenue.
The Inadequacy in compliance may be as a result of the varying challenges that are
faced at local government level, due to size, location and different categories of
municipalities; thus the different priorities of citizens they render services to. The size
and location of the municipality then tends to influence the nature of community needs.
The study wlll look at interventions sought to regulate and rationalise overall financial
management at local government level, as well as the appreciation of the varying
nature of municipalities in the current dispensation. The study takes three phases;
The fi rst phase covers the background of public sector prior to the democratic
dispensation, the reform period after the democratic elections. The phase then delves
on development of local government and restructuring and amalgamation of metropolitan municipalities. The history of the NMBMM from . 2000 when it was
amalgamated from three different municipalities to Port Elizabeth, Despatch and
Uitenhage is also looked at. The consequences as a result of the amalgamation
affecting both the community of the metro as well as the challenges within the
municipality that affect the employees also receive attention. The ruling of the ANC
for the past two decades since the democracy, until it was taken over by the current
coalition leadership will receive attention.
The study then looks at Initiatives by the municipality that benefit the community,
particularly a pro poor budget as well as community participation Initiatives. The
general undertaking of community participation is explored with all the legislation
pertaining to community participation being visited. Community participation is in no
way questioned as it is legislated to ensure that the community gets involved in the
affairs of its municipality. The point that becomes the issue is the extent to which such
participation is allowed and the varying interpretations of community participation as
they lie solely at the discretion of individual municipalities. This part of the study
unpacks a loophole that gives rise to lack of clarity in the extent of community
participation. Based on this, the study identifies a research methodology that initially
could take a mixed method approach due to the fact that interviews can be carried out
from as many community members and municipal officials as Is possible. Also the
study is derivable from all legislation pertaining to local government. However the
study does not intend to unpack the quantity measured to establish the concept of
community participation. The study aims at the quality of knowledge and experiences
from the community based on direct Interviews with the community as well as the
municipal officials in so far as their analysis and interpretation of community
pa rtici patio n.
Due to the nature of the study being mainly on analysing and enhancing legislation,
the bulk of the information is merely through desktop and internal policies that are
structured at the NMBMM. The study analyses these documents and their applicability
as well as effectiveness.
A third stage of the study is highlighting the gap unpacked through desktop Information
gathered and embarks on the possibility to first design a policy that details the extent
of community participation in general for the NMBMM. The policy must be concise
and give a full disclosure of such an extent. The public participation policy does exist
at the NMBMM, however the extent of such participation needs to be revisited. The
reason for this is because there seems to be a blur between public participation and
consultation at the NMBMM. The second policy that becomes quite essential and
shapes up this study, is the policy on participatory budgeting. The study then
completes the three areas of research by deducing the work from the general public
participation concept to the two issues, that of detailing the extent of participation such
that there are no ambiguous areas in terms of such participation. The second issue is
to offer proposals and recommendations for the NMBMM to embark on a comparative
study of participatory budgeting in order to design its own policy on participatory
budgeting. The study is carried out in a very unstable political environment and many
changes are implemented throughout the study.
Description
Keywords
Integrated development plan (IDP), Banking law--South Africa, Public revenue, Legislation, Local government, Local government -- Finance, Dissertation (M.A. (Governance and Political Transformation))--University of the Free State, 2018