Minister gives officials more time
MORE than half of Eastern Cape municipal officials handling taxpayer’s money don’t have the minimum qualifications, and they’ve been given a final chance to get them.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has approved of more time for municipal officials countrywide to pass a Certificate Programme in Management Development (CPMD) in the next 18 months. If they fail, they risk being fired. Had Gordhan not extended the deadline, officials from 269 municipalities nationwide would have lost their jobs.
In the Eastern Cape only 18 chief financial officers in 45 municipalities have the required CPMD and only 21 municipal managers in the province have this qualification.
CFOs without the required certificate include districts often in the news for financial mismanagement, including King Sabatha Dalindyebo (KSD) in Mthatha, O R Tambo district municipality, Lukhanji in Queenstown, Mnquma in Butterworth, Amathole, Mbhashe and Great Kei.
Buffalo City Metro’s CFO Vincent Pillay and municipal manager Andile Fani, and the CFO in Engcobo, have their certificates.
It will be the third extension of the deadline after 269 municipalities indicated they needed more time for their officials to become fully qualified. The extension comes in the same month as Co-operative Governance Minister Lechesa Tsenoli approving regulations for some city managers in the country’s metropolitan municipalities to earn up to R740 000 a year more than President Jacob Zuma to retain scarce skills. Although the amount to be paid to metro municipal managers has been capped at just over R2.8-million a year, the new regulations make provision for municipalities to pay an extra 20% “market premium allowance”.
Local government and traditional affairs superintendentgeneral Stanley Khanyile confirmed that only 18 CFOs and 21 municipal managers in the provinces’ 45 municipalities have the required qualification.
Eastern Cape municipalities performed dismally in the latest 2012-13 audit reports, with seven receiving disclaimer audit opinions.
The CPMD was designed to provide senior municipal officials (municipal managers, CFOs and senior officials) with an in-depth understanding of the changing needs of municipal service delivery and indicate how it impacted on the economy. —