Water service delivery failures at municipal level are a widespread and fundamental problem in South Africa. All year (2009) there have been recurring stories in the press of poor communities receiving sub-standard basic services, and sometimes no services at all. Municipalities continue to receive qualified audits, to have service delivery backlogs that have scarcely reduced in a decade and to be plagued by poor physical infrastructure. There is a general problem of poor governance at municipal level and a public perception that some municipalities do not have the human skills to provide a proper service to the poor. Other municipalities appear to be unaccountable to poor and disenfranchised residents. Central government has already taken over the management of two municipalities and is rethinking its decentralisation policy. Various departments are considering removing the powers and functions of these municipalities.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) in South Africa are worried about the democratic implications of these moves and the impact on the poor, as they made clear at the “Celebrating our stories” Learning and Sharing Forum of the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW), in Lesotho from 7-8 October 2009.

Audit of all municipalities requested

Various national government departments in South Africa have recognised the severity of the problem and have attempted to address it. Legislation has been enacted to make service delivery more transparent and to make municipal government more accountable for service delivery. Municipal governments must include broader society in budget monitoring and decision making, and there is guidance on how municipal budget documents must be prepared. Despite these efforts, the Department of Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs recently declared the need for a comprehensive department audit of all municipalities.

South African metropolitan areas and large cities are doing better than most cities elsewhere on the continent. Smaller municipalities, however, particularly in rural areas are not. The most important reason is that the last round of decentralisation devolved complex powers and functions to local authorities that did not and will never have the capabilities of managing them. The removal of powers and functions in these areas is one of the options on the table.

Empowerment and basic understanding needed

There is a clear need for South African residents to play an active role in ensuring that they can enjoy the services they are entitled to. They need to be empowered to engage meaningfully with the sometimes complex municipal systems and processes. This requires an understanding of the rights of access to information and to public participation, as well as a basic understanding of law, economics and financial accounting relevant to analysing municipal tariffs and financial statements.

And in this respect help is at hand. The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and Mvula Trust held a workshop for civil society and community-based organisations on 28 September 2009 to present their recently developed Water Budget Monitoring Education Tool. The monitoring tool is designed to be used by civil society organisations (CSOs) to enhance public accountability and service delivery. While the tool focuses on water, it can also be applied to other basic services, including electricity and sanitation. It will help CSOs to interpret budget information and other documents related to service delivery. CALS and Mvula Trust had found from research that in order to hold municipal government accountable for service delivery, it is important to understand the budgeting process and elements of public finance, including relevant legislation.

Training outline and questionnaire

The water budget monitoring education tool includes a training outline and a questionnaire for municipal officials. It contains five educational modules:

• Module 1: Analysis of Tariffs
• Module 2: Basic Financial Accounting and Budget Documents
• Module 3: Asset Management
• Module 4: Equitable Share (ES) and Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG)
• Module 5: Water Quality Management and Water Education
• Annex 1 serves as a guide to civil society wanting to train members on the five modules.
• Annex 2 is a questionnaire for municipal officials, to be used as a checklist once participants have gone through the modules.Participants can tick off questions that they can answer successfully and submit remaining questions (with possible changes) to their municipal authorities, ideally by setting up a meeting with the municipal manager.

The tool provides guidance so that those engaged in the monitoring process contact the correct municipal officials with their questions. The booklet also refers to an information pack, which contains relevant laws as well as extracts from eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality’s 2009/10 budget documents.

The Water Budget Monitoring Education Tool Is freely downloadable as a PDF file (1.5 MB).

The Principal author of the tool is Paul Berkowitz, with contributions from Jackie Dugard (CALS), Laila Smith (Mvula Trust) and Kate Tissington.

Dick de Jong

Tags: africa, capacity development, governance, participatory management, policies & legislation, rural wash, urban wash