Accountability and Consequence Management to take center stage at 3rd Local Government Performance Management Seminar

Posted: 19 February 2020

The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) through its Centre for Leadership and Governance, will on 27 – 28 February 2020 host its 3rd Annual Local Government Performance Management Seminar at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre, in Boksburg, Gauteng.

The theme of the seminar is: “Entrenching Accountability and Consequence Management as levers for High Performing Municipalities.” Through this theme the seminar aims to achieve leadership focused interventions and further enhance municipal capacity to adequately respond to local government challenges. Ultimately the theme is motivated by the reality that, 26 years into democracy accountability and consequences management remain persistent challenges in the public sector performance.

When observing the sector, currently, there are 40 municipalities under intervention. According to the Auditor General, Kimi Kakwetu the 2017/18 Audit Outcomes indicated that “various local government role players have been slow in implementing accountability and consequence management and continue to disregard the audit’s office recommendations.” Therefore, accountability for financial and performance management continues to worsen in most municipalities.

In the view that performance management falls within the areas of planning and addressing service delivery, this seminar will, therefore, enable municipal delegates to deliberate on possible and practical solutions to challenges facing municipalities on performance management. It will also seek to enhance the growing footprint of Municipal Performance Management Practitioners as a Community of Practice.

In this regard, the seminar objects to, amongst others:

• Keep the municipal political leadership, senior management and practitioners abreast of important developments in the arena of performance management systems;
• Assess capacity development needs of the sector in the arena of performance management systems; and
• Create an enabling environment for effective advocacy and constituency immersion on SALGA programmes and interventions in the arena of performance management systems.

The Performance Management Seminar is therefore open to Portfolio Heads and Members of Portfolio Committees for Corporate Services; City or Municipal Managers; Corporate Services or Human Resources Directors; Performance Management Managers and Practitioners; Managers for Integrated Development Plans (IDPs); Human Resources Managers; as well as Internal Auditors.

The keynote address will focus on the state of Local Government whereby Mohanuoa Mabidilala, Chief Director: Monitoring and Evaluation, from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) will unpack key developmental priorities that the sector has sought to address since 1994. This session will then be enhanced by Tsakani Ratsela, Deputy Auditor-General who will discuss persistent challenges of accountability in local government.

The programme will further feature Donalda Pretorius, Member of the Presidential Commission on the 4IR who will inspire thoughts to rethinking performance and accountability in a world of technological change and disruption.