SALGA annual report 2016/17 SALGA ANNUAL REPORT 201617 PRINTED FINAL | Page 116

Performance information • SALGA lobbied SARS to provide municipalities with access to non- financial information to meet the data verification working group recommendation. • SALGA formed part of the steering committee on intergovernmental debt and facilitated the payment of outstanding state debts to municipalities. Alternative infrastructure financing options papers were crafted to further contribute to the municipal borrowing policy framework. The four papers included: • • • • Paper on property value capture (property rates and TIF) was made ready for printing; Paper on municipal bonds was finalised; Revised paper on municipal pooled financing; and Drafted paper on pay for success social Public-Private Partnership. A research linking economic growth and local government was done and provided recommendations for municipalities to consider private sector as source of infrastructure financing. Another desktop analysis of the Eskom debt provided insight into the internal and external factors affecting municipalities. • • • • municipalities which was developed and used to support the affected municipalities; Training workshops were convened in all provinces to strengthen collaboration provincially between SALGA, provincial treasuries and provincial CoGTAs; and The initiative of rolling out workshops on introducing local government to trainees of the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA) throughout the country was continued successfully for the third year. MASP follows a multidisciplinary approach that is based on four pillars. All four pillars in a municipality needs to be strong and functioning effectively, in order for a municipality to obtain and sustain unqualified audits and good service delivery. SALGA is confident that the MASP covers the risk areas and root causes identified by the AGSA, as well as the three aspects audited. Institutional capacity Financial management Leadership Governance Municipal audit support programme The municipal audit support programme (MASP) was launched in July 2014 with the objective of supporting selected municipalities to progressively improve their audit outcomes. The selection is based primarily on the audit outcomes and the focus is on adverse and disclaimed municipalities. MASP focusses on four pillars: leadership, institutional capacity, financial management and governance. In 2016/17, 31 municipalities received support on all the pillars of MASP. Some of the support provided is outlined below: • Research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of MASP. The research highlighted areas where MASP is performing effectively and areas where improvement is required. Coupled with this was a guide for newly amalgamated 116 The “red zone”, which comprises adverse and disclaimer outcomes as well as audits not finalised at legislated date, has decreased slightly when compared to 14/15 red zone municipalities ie 35 municipalities. Although 13 municipalities have progressed out of the red zone there was an initial significant increase of audits not finalised by legislated date as well as regressions. Of the 13 municipalities that have progressed, two have progressed to unqualified and 11 to qualified audit opinions. SALGA provided various forms of support to five of the 13 progressed municipalities, namely Ephraim Mogale, Westonaria, Randfontein, Emakhazeni and Oudtshoorn.