Identifying trends and relationships between key performance indicators to aid municipal mangement and decision making

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African municipalities are under pressure to improve the current state of the water andwastewaterservice delivery industry. Knowing that there exists a need for improvement within the municipalwater and wastewater industry, the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) launched a municipalstrategic self-assessment (MuSSA) initiative to evaluate the business health of the industry. MuSSAasks high level technical management staff five key questions about sixteen key business attribute areas.This study seeks to determine if theMuSSA data can be used to aid municipal decision making,by way of drawing correlations between key performance indicators contained in the MuSSA questions.The correlations are to bring forth areas thatmust be focussed on to improve selected attributeareas requiring attention within municipalities. Three areas have been chosen from theMuSSA datato be investigated in this research project namely; (i)staff skill levels and capacity, (ii)non-revenuewater and (iii)the execution of planned water services activities.In the MuSSA questionnaire there are questions addressing each of (i), (ii) and (iii) to determinethe municipality's performance in each of the three areas. Non-parametric statistics are used to determinewith which of the MuSSA questions' answers the relevant questions' answers significantlycorrelate for (i), (ii) and (iii). Engineering judgement and expert opinion are used to determine if thequestions correlating with the relevant questions for (i), (ii) and (iii) either affect, are affected by orhave no relation with the question. These results are then organized using a flow diagram and arediscussed in detail by way of a bivariate histogramof each correlation.The investigation revealed that municipalities not having sufficient technical management capacityare not performing well on at least one of the five questions asked on eleven of the sixteenMuSSA business attributes. The skill level of water and wastewater treatment works staff were foundto be strongly affected by technical management capacity and skill, water services planning and financialsustainability of the organization. Municipalities training technical management and operationalstaff showed a high percentage of skilled operational staff employed at treatment works. Waterand wastewater treatment works staff capacity are very dependent of the level of skill and capacityof technical management employed by the municipality. Municipalities having appropriate budgetsand funding to appoint and train staff showed a tendency to be better at operational staff capacitybuilding than those lacking funding.The reduction of non-revenue water (NRW) showed strong correlations with technical managementand network operational repair staff skills and development. Municipalities employing staffwith correct skills and experience combined, with commitment from management to reduce NRW by way of monitoring and practicing of pressuremanagement programs, significantly reduced NRWpercentages. Equally crucial to the reduction of NRW, as revealed from the investigation, is the practicingof infrastructure asset management within the municipality. It was concluded that municipalitiesshould strive to reach a NRW percentage of 30% or less to become financially stable, dueto correlation between funding of routine operations and building up of cash reserve versus NRWpercentages.Municipalities wanting to improve the execution rate of planned water services activities are recommendedto address, among other factors, technical management skill levels and capacity. Municipalitieslacking technical management skill and capacity reported a low percentages of plannedactivities being executed. Also of high significance, is the technical operational staff skill levels andcapacity, due to their involvement in the execution of planned activates. The involvement of councilmembers in water and wastewater planning and the reporting of data and issues to council greatlyenhancesmunicipalities' abilities to execute planned activities. This can mainly be contributed to increasedfunding in situations where council members support planned projects. The lack of fundingwas found to be a major inhibitor of the execution of planned activities. Even though a great deal ofmunicipalities indicated that they are effectively spending allocated budgets, this positive indicationis not seen in the percentage municipalities executing planned activities and leads to the conclusionthat there is a lack of funding. Municipalities taking actions in other areas of their business such asinfrastructure assetmanagement and planning were more effective at executing planned activities.In all, it was concluded that technicalmanagement and operational staff skill levels and capacityneed to be present for amunicipality to function properly. Municipalities also are in need of fundingto execute planned activities and need to become financially self sustainable. One way of workingtowards the goal of financial self sustainability is the reduction of NRW percentages. The datafrom this investigation shows great similarity with the literature consulted on the current state and functioning of South African municipalities. The statistical analysis of the MuSSA data accuratelyrevealed correlations among key performance indicators in municipalities. The conclusion can bedrawn that investigation of correlations amongMuSSA questions can be used to help aid municipaldecision making.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University