Widespread "rent-seeking and corruption" between public representatives and businesses were at the heart of the infrastructure crisis bedevilling municipalities, warned Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu in his assessment of the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent’s (Misa’s) books.
Makwetu also identified the appointment of unsuitable candidates and a lack of skills at municipal level as impediments to infrastructure development.
Misa incurred R44.6m in irregular expenditure in 2016-17 because of a failure to follow proper tender processes. The agency is a vital cog in local government infrastructure because it helps municipalities to develop technical capacity.
Misa’s administrative successes and failures largely tracked those of the councils it assisted. However, the rot at municipalities was compromising the agency’s sustainability.
Makwetu noted in Misa’s 2016-17 audit commentary that in a number of areas local government was failing to meet citizens’ expectations of infrastructure provision, and this was most apparent where core municipal infrastructure services had collapsed.
The low rate of collection of revenue continues to undermine the ability of municipalities to deliver services.... There are far too many instances both of inappropriate placements and skills not measuring up to requirements
— Kimi Makwetu
One of Misa’s biggest challenges is the fact that councils use funds meant for infrastructure to pay salaries and creditors, making its capacity-building task almost impossible.
Makwetu said the problem was exacerbated by municipalities’ failure to pay due attention to infrastructure plans, maintenance, the extension of critical infrastructure and interventions that would avert service delivery interruptions.
He also identified underspending as a key challenge.
"As disclosed in the statement of comparison and actual amounts, the government component has materially underspent the budget by R54.1m due to delays in implementing planned projects. Consequently, certain targets included in the annual performance plan were not achieved," said Makwetu.
"The low rate of collection of revenue continues to undermine the ability of municipalities to deliver services.... There are far too many instances both of inappropriate placements and skills not measuring up to requirements," wrote Makwetu.
Misa acting CEO Ntandazo Vimba said challenges within the supply chain management unit and a lack of skills in the procurement process were the main reasons for underspending the Misa budget.
"This disproportionately high level of underspending is attributed mainly to slow procurement processes and a high rate of vacancies.
"This amount includes R30m that was ring-fenced for the Regional Management Support Contracts project that was started in all three pilot districts of Amathole, OR Tambo and Sekhukhune," said Vimba.
He said Misa had made significant strides in addressing its own control deficiencies in the supply chain management unit.
Interventions included filling vacancies and appointing a service provider to boost the agency’s internal capacity for supply chain management for the next two years, he said.
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