A Guide for Councillors

The Role of Councillors in Municipal Finance Management

Introduction

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The Guide is in six parts, as follows: Part 1 – What is the MFMA: This provides an overview of what the legislation intends to do and how it helps councillors Part 2 – Separation of powers in a municipality: This explains the new fi nancial governance framework by clarifying and separating the roles and responsibilities of the mayor, executive and non-executive councillors and of fi cials Part 3 – Political and administrative accountability: This provides details of what things councillors should and shouldn’t do under the MFMA Part 4 – Municipal planning and budgeting: This explains the budget process and its linkages toother strategic plans suchas the integrated development plan (IDP) Part 5 – Delivering services: What must be done to implement the budget using the service delivery and budget implementation plan (SDBIP) Part 6 – Using reports and resolving fi nancial problems: What reports must be made available to councillors, what to look for in these reports and how to resolve fi nancial problems

The nature of governance Financial governance is marked by many important things, not least of which is a higher expectation by the public of fair delivery of services, more effective community consultation and greater levels of transparency and accountability in all dealings. People rightly demand high levels of professionalism, integrity and leadership from their elected councillors and seek adequate safeguards that their municipality is working ef fi ciently and effectively and in the interest of the people it serves. This is explained in more detail in the next chapter.

HAVE YOU RECEIVED YOUR POCKET GUIDES?

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Understanding the Municipal Finance Management Act