M. Tech. Cost and Management Accounting / This study analysed perceptions on the application of cost accounting in the budgeting process, a case of the City of Tshwane municipality. The focus was generally recognised costing techniques used. Employee perceptions were analysed to determine whether recognised costing techniques were being applied, and if so, were those costing techniques being efficiently and effectively applied. An analysis of the employee perceptions of the reliability of the currently implemented costing techniques for the preparation of budget estimates, together with the employees' perceptions of management's implementation and maintenance of the budget estimates as required by legislation governing municipal budgeting process was also carried out.

Objective of the study. This study is about the intergovernmental fiscal relations in South Africa. The primary objective is to review the international experience of fiscal decentralisation with the view to providing answers to the issue of revenue sharing, problems of expenditure and revenue assignment, and the impact of the whole decentralization on the size of the public sector in South Africa. Methodology. The methodology adopted in this study includes (1) a review and comparison of the practise of fiscal decentralisation in four countries, and (2) an econometric investigation into the impact of fiscal decentralisation on the size of the public sector, using time series quarterly data for the period 1993/94 to the second quarter of 1998/99. Regarding the econometric investigation, a single linear regression model including fiscal decentralisation, fiscal collusion, income and population are assumed to influence the size of the public sector. Study Findings. Our analysis provides certain interesting results. First, the countries reviewed tend to assign functions in a manner that is consistent with the public finance theory that functions that are distributive in nature and those that are meant to ensure the country's stability should be reserved exclusively for the federal or national government. Whereas the Australian, Canadian and Brazilian's revenue decentralization show a number of significant taxes that are devolved to the lower levels of government, Germany represents a strong collection at the center. The discrepancy is compensated for by the use of equalization grants in the German model. Second, fiscal decentralisation is found to exert a negative influence on the size of the public sector, although the impact is statistically not significant. The insignificance of the impact of fiscal decentralisation on the size of the public sector is explained in terms of the fact that there has, in fact, been very little decentralisation in South Africa. The size of the provincial and local government own source revenue relative to the consolidated general government expenditure is very little, pointing to the serious lack of revenue raising powers by the sub-national governments and thus the absence of any meaningful extent of decentralisation. Third fiscal-collusion exerts a significant negative influence on the size of the public sector. That is, the size of the public sector will reduce if provinces and local authorities are granted enough power to raise their own revenues. This result indicates that the massive transfers of revenue from the national government to the provinces and local authorities (revenue sharing) significantly reinforces the expanding influence of the decentralised expenditures financed through revenue transfers. Fourth, the overall size of the country's population is found to be inversely related to the size of the public sector supporting the argument that as population increases, economies in providing services are reaped. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Amathole District Municipality has for the past five consecutive years been receiving an unqualified audit opinion from the AGSA. This has been the trend, despite the commitment made by the Executive Mayor in April 2012 to the then Auditor-General, Mr Nombembe, that the leadership of the municipality would deliver a clean audit outcome by 30 June 2013. This scenario is replicated in the local municipalities within the district. Two of the district municipalities have for the past three consecutive years been receiving a disclaimer audit opinion. In one of the municipalities, this trend changed; and this municipality received an unqualified audit opinion for two consecutive years; while in the third year, it received a qualified audit opinion. The stagnation and regression in the audit outcomes of these municipalities may be as a result of either the non-implementation of audit-action plans to address the previous year’s audit findings; or there could be other factors resulting in the above scenario. The main objective of this study is to investigate whether the utilisation of the Auditor-General’s reports improve the audit outcomes in selected municipalities within Amathole District Municipality for the period 01 July 2006 to 30 June 2015.

The National Department of Health is the executive department of the South African government which is assigned to the national health issues of the country. This research was however aimed specifically on the budgeting process within the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Health. This was provisioned by assessing the significance of the budgeting system and its correlation to efficient and effective healthcare service delivery. The aim of the research was to highlight on how policies have an effect on the budgeting system at the provincial level, considering the provincial health department is responsible for the provision of publicly funded health services. This research assessed the budgeting system in the Eastern Cape Department of Health in an attempt to propagate effective and efficient health service delivery for the general citizenry. This was a qualitative study design which harnessed the merits of secondary data as the main code of the research design which enabled the comprehension of the budgeting system in the Eastern Cape Department of Health. Data was analysed using thematic analysis to examine the distinctive themes and sub-themes identified from within the reviewed literature. The Eastern Cape Province is succumbing to insufficient funding at provincial level and this has a clear-cut reflection on the administration of services within respective departments, particularly the Health Department. This is despite the fact that the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 promotes the objectives of good financial management aimed at maximizing service delivery through the effective use of the limited resources. Resultantly it was fundamental to comprehend on the issues underpinning the scope of budget reporting as well as budget accountability and the effect it has on service delivery in the Eastern Cape Department of Health. Recommendations were thus given based on the discussed and derived themes to ensure that there is an appropriate budgeting system to ensure efficient and effective provision of health care services in the Eastern Cape Department of Health.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Budgets are inevitable strategic tools used in the planning of the effective delivery by any organisation. In a sense budgets become the financial interpretation of work, services or products to be produced or services to be delivered by the organisation. In the same vein, government departments have plans and programmes to be implemented, and these programmes are quantified in the form of budgets. The budgeting processes are determined by the strategic imperatives and the type of leadership in an organisation, thereby differing from organisation to organisation. The traditional approach in government budgeting is that the activities to be undertaken start as political decisions which will be cascaded down to the different departments. Though the different department units construct their own budgets, the ultimate budget comes top down more than it comes top up. This research aims to identify the extent of the involvement of budget managers in the budget development process and the possible limiting factors if any. The study goes further to try to understand why there is always a seeming perpetual difference between budgets and deliveries at the end of every year. This empirical research focussed on the ‘budget practitioners’ in the particular department under study with emphasis on how they operate. Questionnaires were used to collect data which was analysed using Excel Spreadsheet and the findings were interpreted. The findings imply a need for extensive training as well as empowerment of the budget practitioners to be able to create congruence between budgets, budgeting processes, project implementation and envisage delivery to the citizens.

The purpose of this mini-dissertation is to investigate the applicability of the King III in local government sphere, as well as to evaluate the impact it is likely to have if its principles and recommendations were to be fully implemented. Local government has been plagued by very serious challenges of poor service delivery and this has been attributed, in the main, to a lack of adequate resources to address backlogs and maintain existing infrastructure. it is therefore very important that all resources are harnessed and channelled to where they are most need, in service delivery. The investigation of the systems and procedures that are in place to ensure prudent financial management and accountability is a worthwhile study. the BMC, is one of two economic hubs of the Eastern Cape. The mini dissertation commences with assessment of governance arrangements that are in place at the BMC against the minimum standards proposed by the King III. It explores the full range of principles proposed in the codes and compares that to practices and procedures at BMC. To avoid a long winded discussion because the principles are close to ten in number; these have been combined and formulated into four broad themes. A consolidated discussion on manifestations on bad governance or poor adherence to good governance in the public sector is discussed in detail. Finally, the impact of various initiatives currently being pursued to promote good governance will be examined, key lessons will be drawn and recommendations for further studies will be made.

The role of NGOs has been widely recognised in eradicating poverty and creating sustainable development in communities. Governments and private corporations view them as complementary partners in enhancing the livelihoods of people. In order to survive, NGOs need to be financially sustainable to carry out their missions. Their existence is, however, threatened by the current economic and political climate. In South Africa, the recent global economic recession and the country’s recovery from the apartheid system since 1994 have both had a negative impact in funding financial flow to NGOs. Compounded by the growing demand for new NGOs, evidence shows that there is fierce competition between NGOs for the same funding and, since NGOs by nature do not produce commercial outputs, they are limited to pursue funding opportunities made available through donations. This study explored the issues of financial sustainability within local NGOs in the Gauteng Province. The aim was to build mechanisms that could be put in place to monitor organisational financial sustainability over time. The study used a qualitative methodology and the researcher adopted an exploratory design to gain insight and meaning into the issues faced by NGOs. A sample of ten members from local NGOs in the Gauteng Province was identified and data was collected through key informant interviews and questionnaires. The study found that the majority of NGOs face difficulties in achieving financial sustainability over the long-term. The results indicated that funding in the sector is shrinking, with very few NGOs surviving through endowments. Their major challenges in raising funds are due to area limitations, competition within the sector, lack of skills, staff shortage and visibility. They optimise available opportunities but also acknowledge that they are not implementing other fundraising strategies that could be effective in raising funds. Evidence also showed that these NGOs are meeting the requirements of good financial management practices, which could improve their likelihood to achieve financial sustainability. The research recommends that NGOs need to be empowered to negotiate restrictions under the grants, raise endowments through income-generating activities, manage stakeholder relationships and cost any future funding prospects for key decision making that is likely to have an impact on the structure and the strategic direction of an organisation.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Public Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016. / This research examines the effectiveness of the factors that have been introduced to bring about progress to clean audit outcomes in South African municipalities. This research has become increasingly important as the democratic dispensation in South Africa has witnessed a gradual weakening of public financial accountability. As a consequence of this ongoing decline, the National Government initiated the campaign “operation clean audit” as a means to achieve a new level of improved audit outcomes. The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) identified three key factors that would drive improved audit outcomes, namely leadership, financial management and governance. Given that “operation clean audit” had seemingly become an elusive dream by 2014, the researcher decided to examine the relative effectiveness of the causative variables identified by the AGSA as key to achieving improved audit outcomes. This research therefore was intended to make a contribution to the body of academic knowledge by pursuing the following objectives: to examine the effect of leadership on the achievement of clean audit outcomes in the South African public service; to analyse the effectiveness of financial management in the South African public service; to evaluate the effect of governance on the achievement of clean audit outcomes in the South African public service, and to propose a framework for understanding the factors that affect clean audit outcomes in the South African public service. To achieve the research objectives, the research applied a positivist paradigm and a quantitative approach. Data were collected from the AGSA’s consolidated municipal reports from the nine provinces of the Republic. Hence, the study was limited to the use of municipal audit reports, consolidated into single reports for all the municipalities in each of the provinces over a period of years. Thus, the study examines a total of nine consolidated reports for each of the five years between 2009/2010 – 2013/2014. Using the panel data approach, this produced a set of nine cross sectional units and 5 periods which thus produced 45 time series observations. Subsequently, a panel data multiple regression analysis was conducted to analyse the data. After correcting the model for heteroskedaskicity, the results from the regression analysis revealed important relationships in only two dimensions. On the one hand, the three independent variables – leadership, financial management and governance – jointly vi have a significant relationship with clean audit outcomes, with a P value P<0.000, which is substantially below the 5% alpha level anticipated for this research. The independent variables were each examined for their individual effects on clean audit results. Results show that only governance has a significant and direct effect on the achievement of a clean audit. Given that governance has a substantially stronger impact on the achievement of clean audits (far more than do the other variables), further analysis was conducted to determine the variables that influence the efficiency of governance. The results reveal that the effectiveness of the audit committee has an overriding influence on the ability of an entity to achieve clean audits. The findings thus appear to confirm the Auditor General’s broad claim that leadership, financial management and governance are the key drivers to improved audit outcomes: but further analysis reveals that this happens only when the three variables are analysed as a single unit, to examine whether they significanly enhance clean audit outcomes. As single variables, only governance proved to affect clean audit outcomes significantly. The findings from the analysis thus corroborates the literature, thus achieving the first three research objectives. Arising from this analysis, the researcher was able to propose a framework for understanding the factors that affect an entity’s progression to clean audit. This constituted the achievement of research objective 4, and makes a contribution to the current body of knowledge on the topic. Thus, this research contributes to knowledge in that it develops a framework for understanding the factors that affect the achievement of a clean audit, and proposes two key approaches to further research and improve public sector auditing: a model to research the variables that affect audit committee effectiveness; and a practical approach that includes additional variables (drawn from the framework) during the public sector audit. Key words Accountability, accounting, audit committee, audit quality, clean audit, financial management, governance, leadership, public administration, public policy, public sector, supreme audit institution. / Faculty of Economics and of Finance at the Tshwane University of Technology, and the Faculty of Management and Law at the University of Limpopo

Thesis (MPA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Since its inception in 1861 when the first public accounts committee was established in the United Kingdom, this oversight mechanism has developed into a model for non-executive financial oversight and accountability at the national and provincial levels of government throughout the Commonwealth and beyond. A few municipalities in South Africa have also established public accounts committees, but they are a few isolated cases. The hesitance on the part of South African municipalities to establish a good governance mechanism with a proven track record is a cause of concern, especially in view of the poor financial management that prevails throughout the local sphere of government. In this case study of the public accounts committee established in the City of Cape Town in 2006, the researcher explores the feasibility of the implementation of the public accounts committee model within the local government sphere in South Africa. Twenty internationally recognised public accounts committee practices were identified and used to probe the selected case to gain in-depth knowledge of the extent to which the committee adheres to these recognised practices. Where the committee deviated from accepted practices, the reasons for the deviation and its impact on the effectiveness of the committee were analysed. Finally, the key lessons learnt from the experience of the public accounts committee in the City of Cape Town are used in order to make two sets of recommendations: Firstly, recommendations on how the public accounts committee of the City of Cape Town can become more effective than it currently is – recommendations which are also relevant to any municipality wishing to establish a public accounts committee. The second set of recommendations is addressed to the national authorities in charge of finance and local government, as the challenge of establishing improved governance systems in local government is of national importance, and it is within the power of these authorities to remove a few key obstacles in the way of establishing municipal public accounts committees.

Submitted in fulfilment of Masters in Development Planning, Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / The purpose of the thesis is to assess municipal own sources of revenue in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Section 229 of the Constitution of South Africa states that municipalities may impose rates on property and surcharges on fees for services provided by the municipality or on behalf of the municipality. The primary data obtained from the City of Johannesburg facilitated the assessment of property tax and user fees revenue performance of the municipality as well as the challenges in the administration of revenue. A case study approach was used and the data required was on assessment of property tax and user fees revenue performance of the municipality as well as the challenges in the administration of revenue. Data was therefore collected from the primary data sources.This research shed the light on challenges that the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality encounter in the process of tax rate and charges administration in order to raise enough revenue to cover the cost of service delivery. Findings in relation to revenue collection were based on the information obtained from a user’s survey, the department of revenue, head of property unit, MMC finance and the executive mayor. Amongst other challenges that affect the CoJ own source of revenue, is the issue of property valuation and billing system which is to allow the city to charges tax payers according to property market value. In addition, there is no proper line of communication between the city and the community about the necessity of property tax rates and fee charges. Hence, some members of local community are not fulfilling their property tax obligations because of poverty or by preference. Observations from the study indicates that practical difficulties related to tax base identification and the lack of human capacity contribute significantly to the underperformance of the property tax administration system across South Africa as a whole. The inadequate records on property information have contributed to the inefficiency of the property tax system since many taxable units are not known, and therefore, it becomes difficult for the taxing authorities to collect property tax. Consequently, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is unable to collect enough revenue to cover the cost of service delivery. In order to rectify these problems some of the measures recommended include the need to improve human capacity and the communication/collaboration between local community and the municipality. / MT2017