Enhancing financial compliance through participatory budgeting: a case study of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality

[摘要] Compliance within the areas of financial management legislation and division ofrevenue for improved service delivery has to always speak to each other according tothe integrated Development Plan (IDP), the overall local government legislation andthe Constitution. There Is a relationship between the citizens, public revenue andofficials, as well as politicians that act as 'messengers,' who interface with both thecitizens and the municipalities. For the municipality to be functional, availableresources must be used optimally and for the benefit of the citizens at large. This isarguably not the case in practice although there are policies, procedures andlegislation in place to ensure that such measures are implemented. There are alwaysloopholes and challenges that hinder effective implementation due to ignorance,inadequate control measures and non-compliance in the management of publicresources.Non-compliance has been prevalent in the public sector, and local government is noexception, as some officials entrusted with compliance are able to manipulate thesystems in place and engage In corrupt practices. It follows then that inconsistency inlegislative compliance becomes not only a problem in municipal financialmanagement, but becomes expansive in other avenues and legislation. The study willfocus on local government financial management and finding a synergy between suchmanagement and division of revenue.The Inadequacy in compliance may be as a result of the varying challenges that arefaced at local government level, due to size, location and different categories ofmunicipalities; thus the different priorities of citizens they render services to. The sizeand location of the municipality then tends to influence the nature of community needs.The study wlll look at interventions sought to regulate and rationalise overall financialmanagement at local government level, as well as the appreciation of the varyingnature of municipalities in the current dispensation. The study takes three phases;The fi rst phase covers the background of public sector prior to the democraticdispensation, the reform period after the democratic elections. The phase then delveson development of local government and restructuring and amalgamation of metropolitan municipalities. The history of the NMBMM from . 2000 when it wasamalgamated from three different municipalities to Port Elizabeth, Despatch andUitenhage is also looked at. The consequences as a result of the amalgamationaffecting both the community of the metro as well as the challenges within themunicipality that affect the employees also receive attention. The ruling of the ANCfor the past two decades since the democracy, until it was taken over by the currentcoalition leadership will receive attention.The study then looks at Initiatives by the municipality that benefit the community,particularly a pro poor budget as well as community participation Initiatives. Thegeneral undertaking of community participation is explored with all the legislationpertaining to community participation being visited. Community participation is in noway questioned as it is legislated to ensure that the community gets involved in theaffairs of its municipality. The point that becomes the issue is the extent to which suchparticipation is allowed and the varying interpretations of community participation asthey lie solely at the discretion of individual municipalities. This part of the studyunpacks a loophole that gives rise to lack of clarity in the extent of communityparticipation. Based on this, the study identifies a research methodology that initiallycould take a mixed method approach due to the fact that interviews can be carried outfrom as many community members and municipal officials as Is possible. Also thestudy is derivable from all legislation pertaining to local government. However thestudy does not intend to unpack the quantity measured to establish the concept ofcommunity participation. The study aims at the quality of knowledge and experiencesfrom the community based on direct Interviews with the community as well as themunicipal officials in so far as their analysis and interpretation of communitypa rtici patio n.Due to the nature of the study being mainly on analysing and enhancing legislation,the bulk of the information is merely through desktop and internal policies that arestructured at the NMBMM. The study analyses these documents and their applicabilityas well as effectiveness.A third stage of the study is highlighting the gap unpacked through desktop Informationgathered and embarks on the possibility to first design a policy that details the extentof community participation in general for the NMBMM. The policy must be conciseand give a full disclosure of such an extent. The public participation policy does existat the NMBMM, however the extent of such participation needs to be revisited. Thereason for this is because there seems to be a blur between public participation andconsultation at the NMBMM. The second policy that becomes quite essential andshapes up this study, is the policy on participatory budgeting. The study thencompletes the three areas of research by deducing the work from the general publicparticipation concept to the two issues, that of detailing the extent of participation suchthat there are no ambiguous areas in terms of such participation. The second issue isto offer proposals and recommendations for the NMBMM to embark on a comparativestudy of participatory budgeting in order to design its own policy on participatorybudgeting. The study is carried out in a very unstable political environment and manychanges are implemented throughout the study.

[发布机构] University of the Free State