By REGINALD KANYANE

Following a series of consultative sessions with all 22 municipalities in the province in the past weeks, the North West local government and Human Settlements department has developed an integrated support plan that will unblock service delivery bottlenecks at local government level.

MEC Fenny Gaolaolwe said the support plan will focus on three key areas such as governance, service delivery and financial management.

“The plan entails among others working with sector departments to capacitate oversight structures such as the municipal public accounts committees (MPACs) to deal with with oversight processes, deployment of performance management systems practitioners to assist identified municipalities to draft their annual reports.

“The plan will also see the department conducting an assessment of the state of organisational structures in municipalities to ensure proper alignment with the mandate and grading of such municipalities,” Gaolaolwe said.

She added that the department will also work with the Finance departmen to assist municipalities to develop a tool to monitor the implementation of internal controls weakness identified by the Auditor General (AG).

“In order to improve implementation of service delivery projects, the department will conduct an audit of water services development plans for municipalities that are Water Service Authorities (WSA), as well as assist municipalities develop water and sanitation reliability master plans,” she said.

The support plan to municipalities follows directives by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Zweli Mkhize, to the department after a Cabinet decision to invoke Section 100 (1)(a) on the department after an assessment that was conducted by the Inter-Ministerial Task Team appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa early in the year.

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