Movable non-current assets are physical and mobile assets that a municipality uses to provide services to the community directly or indirectly. Therefore, effective movable non-current asset management is necessary to ensure that these assets provide value to both the municipality and the community. This study seeks to determine whether poor asset management negatively affects capital budgeting for procurement of movable non-current assets. Mbhashe Local Municipality, a Category B municipality in the Eastern Cape Province was selected for the study. A desktop research method was utilised for this study. The analysis of secondary data includes policy documents (such as National Treasury asset management guidelines and Mbhashe budgeting policy), books, journals, internet data, newspapers and research documents in order to determine asset management guidelines and budgeting theories by noteworthy scholars. Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) and State of Local Government Finance reports were also analysed to establish the current practice and impact of the role of the municipal management in its finances as well as budget spending patterns at Mbhashe Local Municipality. The results of the study revealed that Mbhashe Local Municipality’s non-compliance with asset management and budgeting policies and procedures throughout the period of the study negatively affected their capital budgeting decisions. The consequences of instability in leadership and lack of approved movable non-current asset management policy resulted in partial asset information, incorrect recording and accounting systems for assets and unauthorised disposal of strategic movable non-current assets. Although, an approved budget policy existed at Mbhashe Local Municipality, the budgetary information was unrealistic because of negligence such as: lack of public participation, consultation and alignment of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) with the municipality’s objectives. This resulted in habitual under-spending of capital assets compared to the capital budget throughout the period of the study.

This paper studies the impact of financial reporting scrutiny on (private) debt contracting in the presence of two capital market frictions: a cash-diversion problem and an asset-substitution problem. When cash flow realizations are not verifiable, firms have an incentive to divert cash by manipulating their accounting reports. When firms' project choices are not verifiable, post financing, they may have an incentive to choose riskier projects than desired by their financiers. While earlier work has mostly examined these two frictions independently, they are intricately linked: to address the cash-diversion problem, an optimal contract resembles a debt contract, which in turn causes the asset-substitution problem. Holding the scrutiny of financial reporting fixed, I show that the emergence of the asset-substitution problem, instead of compounding the existing inefficiencies from the cash-diversion problem, may lead to improved investment efficiency and more socially efficient risk-taking. On the other hand, increased reporting scrutiny may undermine investment efficiency (i.e., decrease banks' lending) and adversely affect firms' risk shifting from a social welfare perspective.

There is a strong belief amongst human resource specialists, professionals and academics that strategic human-resource management is critical to the success of the business and wellbeing of employees, and the organisation in which they work. There are two sides to human resources, as a strategic partner: Firstly, how it looks and portrays itself; and secondly, how the organisation views the importance of its human capital. Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank and Ulrich (2012) and the RBL Group (2012) identified six human-resource competencies for human resource (HR) practitioners. These not only identify the role they play in an organisation; but they also assist an organisation in achieving its objectives. These competencies, which apply to all HR practitioners, are: strategic positioner, change champion, credible activist, capability builder, technology proponent, innovator, and integrator. The implementation of the Government Immovable Asset Management Act No.19 of 2007 (GIAMA), and its policy implementation, are critical to infrastructural developments, economic development, and skills development, redressing any imbalances from the past and current history, and also developing a public service that assists the country in being internationally competitive. An HR practitioner with a worldview is critical in facilitating one of the most important transformative pieces of legislation. The research problem in this study is to investigate the role of human resources in the implementation of GIAMA and its policy framework in the Eastern Cape Province’s Port Elizabeth Regional Office by the National Department of Public Works. To achieve this objective, a quantitative study was undertaken on the role of human resources as a “strategic partner”. It involved an extensive literature review to assess the role of strategic human resources. An empirical study was later conducted to investigate the role of human resources in the Port Elizabeth Regional Office (from the National Department of Public Works); and how well this office succeeds in playing its assigned role. The conducted survey was compared with the literature review, to determine whether the Port Elizabeth Regional Office’s human resources are in line with the objectives of being a “strategic partner”. The overall findings revealed that the role of human resources is not that of a “strategic partner”. It also revealed that of the six competencies identified by Ulrich et al. (2012) and the RBL Group (2012), none of them could really be viewed as strategic. Notwithstanding the progressive pieces of legislation, it was appalling to receive the outcome, which indicated organisational failure for the past six years (see Figure 1.1). The conclusion of the study indicated that the Port Elizabeth Regional Office (from National Department of Public Works) must implement legislative recommendations as a starting point, and grow from there. The legislation and regulations are very supportive, and encourage innovative thinking – to achieve government goals – and to be on a par with the private sector.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. School of Civil & Environmental Engineering Johannesburg, September 2015 / The research presented in this report set out to determine the extent to which cross-enterprise integration between three Municipal Owned Entities (MOEs) in Johannesburg, i.e. City Power, Johannesburg Water and Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), could be beneficial to the Council and users of the Council’s assets. The research included a comprehensive review of available literature to find the needs of / gaps in infrastructure asset management and examples of cross-enterprise integration. Interviews with MOEs’ personnel were conducted to determine current levels of infrastructure asset management. A library of the costs of potential hazards arising from damages caused by MOEs to other MOEs’ assets during maintenance tasks was compiled. A simulation exercise was conducted. The exercise involved the development and application of a computer program using Visual Basic for Applications programming tool. The program created a series of job cards for maintenance works by all MOEs using available asset data for a section of the city. Conflict areas were identified where work on one asset might compromise the integrity of other assets. Costs of the damage to the assets in terms of direct costs of repairs and users’ costs, due to lower levels of service, were quantified for each conflict point. The simulation exercise was run over a thirty year period. The average annual costs were costed using cost to benefit analysis. Expenses associated with the creation of new organisational structures and new cross-enterprise software systems were studied using available data in literature. The expenses and savings formed the basis of the cost to benefit analysis. The study shows that the introduction of a cross-enterprise integrated system can significantly reduce costs to the Council and users. There are several other benefits originating from cross-enterprise integration including more efficient use of skilled personnel, efficiency in issuing of way leaves, and improved integrity of asset data. The installation of such a system need not only service the three MOEs included in the study. It is possible that all owners of assets on Council property, including external organisations such as Telkom, Neotel, and Dark Fibre Africa, will benefit from cross-enterprise integration.