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.

This research project mainly focuses on the public financial accountability in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for South Sudan. According to the Public Service Regulations, the government has a duty and responsibility to deliver services to its entire people. In other words, the government exists primarily for the welfare of the people, by creating public institutions to render services delivery and developmental programmes for the communities. There are no government institutions that can function without the provision of finance resources (money). The management of the finances is one of the most important and critical tasks of the government, which requires public financial accountability from the political role-players and public officials, concerned with the use of public money (to be accountable). However the level of service delivery that citizens have to expect depends mostly on standardized public financial accountability of public money (revenue income) by the role players, and public officials in the institutions as integral part of public financial management. Any organization that manages and reports on its finances mitigates the risk of finances, builds good quality and openness into its financial and non financial analyses, monitors the sustainability of benefits and reflects sound financial accountability. Public financial accountability is a specific field that intended to as a tool use for the economy, efficient and effective administration of public money for render of service delivery to the citizens and the developmental programmes for the better live condition or general welfare of the communities. The study was motivated by the issue of public financial accountability in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for both, during the interim period of six years and after independence in, 2011 for the government of South Sudan which has influenced socio- economic concern, as a result many communities in South Sudan have no access to basic services delivery. Research instruments which solicited quantitative and qualitative data were used to collect information from a sample of management officials and administrative staffs within the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning The research sought to identify the challenges faced and their causes and the ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness of public financial accountability in the ministry of finance and economic planning. The focus of public financial accountability is ranging from the stages of revenue collection, keeping/saving, treasury regulations, money transfer and budget expenditure, etc that can be achieved by transparency, financial reporting statements, control, and audit, as well as good ethical behavior for good performance in the public institutions, this is because maladministration practices of public finance have an impact in rendering of service delivery’s performance. This research focuses on the level of preparedness for accountability and financial accountability with regard to public financial management in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Particularly, it explored the laws, policies, procedures, rules and regulations governing implementation of public money, systems in place to oversee this process as well as the capacity of the role-players and public officials in this respective ministry. It further examined how finances have been used for the rendering of service delivery to the communities. In order to accomplish the objectives of this study, a literature study as well as empirical research was undertaken. For the empirical research, questionnaires as well as various types of interviews were used. For proportionate representation efficiency as well as cost effectiveness, the research used a sample of 26 respondents. These included 6 Financial Management Officers, 4 Directors General, 14 finance administrative Staffs, 1 Auditor-General, 1 Chair Person of Anti-Corruption Commission Exploratory statistics and methods were utilized to analyze the data collected so as to measure the reaction to the research questions and objectives under scrutiny. The research disclosed that the public financial accountability in the Ministry of Finance and Economic planning is a new approach that facilitates changes and growth by improving the ways of control public money. The study also found that the standardized laws, policies rules and regulations, and procedures for implementation for public financial accountability have been developed, but not implemented to achieve the stated goals. Also some other important documents are not yet developed. The findings attested to recommendations that, this research will help the policy makers to reformulate the policy; help the implementers or administrators the planners or the managers of the programmes to modify or adjust the programme; to help professionals or academician including those who may research in the area or field; it will help in filling gap in that particular academic dimension or field. The study made recommendations that, the public financial accountability must be improved in the ministry of finance and economic planning, through standardized policies and structures, procedures, transparent and accountable, financial reporting statements and control pertaining to public money. There is a great need for further research in this area of public financial management. This may not be restricted to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning only but to all other state ministries where the utilization of public money has already been established.

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 (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This research aimed to find out if there is a link between government financial assistance to small-scale hotels and their financial performance in Limpopo province, South Africa. The objectives of the study is to examine the impact of government financial assistance on three financial performance measures, namely, sales turnover, net profits and net asset growth of the small scale-hotels. The research used a quantitative approach. Secondary panel data was collected from the financial statements of six small-scale hotels from 2015 to 2018. Data were analyzed using multiple regression model to arrive at the conclusion. The findings from the data analysis reveal that government financial assistance positively and significantly impact the growth in sales turnover and net profits of the small-scale hotels. Furthermore, the findings show that there is no significant relationship between government financial assistance and net asset growth of small scale hotels. The findings of this research have practical implications for the companies operating in the small-scale hotel sector. In addition, the findings of this study is important for the policy makers, as it highlights the policy gaps existing in the sector. The study recommends further research to examine the relationship between government financial assistance to small-scale hotels and their financial performance.

This empirical study of governmental finances of Fairfax County, Virginia, for Fiscal Year 1971 compares revenues and expenditures for two types of communities within its boundaries -- Reston, a growing new town, and West Springfield, a conventional suburb. Among the ten services provided by the County to both communities, education accounted for the largest share of expenditures. On the revenue side the real estate tax was the principal source. Reston's fiscal impact, the ratio of revenues to expenditures, is more favorable for the County than that of West Springfield because of the commercial-industrial tax base present in a new town which is absent from the conventional suburb and because Reston's school-age population differed from West Springfield's. For FY71 West Springfield did not produce revenues equal to expenditures made for it. The reader is cautioned to not project from a single year's fiscal impact to other years or to other communities. Yet the results obtained from these contrasting types of communities within a single governmental jurisdiction cannot be ignored. Implications of this research and recommendations for Fairfax County, governmental decision-makers at local, state and federal levels, and for the Department of Housing and Urban Development are presented. Methodology for estimation of revenues and expenditures for Reston and West Springfield, criteria by which West Springfield was selected, and general descriptions of the two communities and services provided by the County are included. / Master of Urban Affairs

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

The advent of democracy in 1994 prompted the South African government to provide public goods to the entire population as opposed to providing services along racial lines, as was the case during the apartheid era. Consequently, government expenditure increased considerably. However, continuous service delivery protests in recent years indicate that government has not been operating optimally. The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and National Treasury introduced Organisational Performance Management (OPM) to improve service delivery. Government also adopted internal auditing as a mechanism to improve OPM because of internal auditing’s mandate, role and body of knowledge. This study explored the implementation of OPM as a management tool to assist national departments in effectively delivering goods and services to the public economically and efficiently. The study also explored the adoption of internal auditing by national departments as a mechanism to improve OPM. The study followed a sequential mixed methods approach. The chief audit executives of eighteen national departments participated in the quantitative phase. Interviews were held with employees from four national departments as well as two monitoring departments. Departmental officials included five deputy directors-general, three chief directors, four directors, one deputy director and one senior internal auditor. Seven focus group discussions were held with twenty-two internal auditors from the four departments. Sixty-four documents were analysed. The study found that national departments have implemented systems of OPM and the reporting of quarterly performance information but are at different levels of maturity. However, governance and reporting fatigue and a reluctance to implement effective consequence management for poor performance may be undermining optimal performance. National departments may be also preparing strategic plans, annual performance plans and annual reports simply for compliance rather than for optimal performance. The study also found that internal auditors may not have a thorough understanding of the department’s performance environment and consequently undertake limited assessments of OPM, focusing mainly on quarterly performance information (PI) and documentation rather than on organisational strategy. However, management’s expectations from internal auditing go beyond assessing the quarterly PI and require advice and guidance on strategic imperatives. The appropriate skills, knowledge and training of internal auditors therefore require review. Management expects assurance of sustainable future performance of the department. Internal auditing currently stands positioned to make an evolutionary transformation into becoming the most important strategic partner to management. However, under-theorisation and a restricted internal auditing approach inhibit its natural evolution. / College of Accounting Sciences / D. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Douglas_Schiavoni_Froemming.pdf: 909162 bytes, checksum: f58083bdabbc536634558bada9dca381 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-10 / The federal decentralization promoted by the Constitution of 1988 raised the Brazilian municipalities to the important role in the dissemination of public policies. Once they are closest to the population, the decisions made at the municipal level are readily perceived by users and citizens. On the other hand, the social demands and the management of the administrative structure need efficient financial management and a constant search for resources. Additionally, the 9.478/97 Act, which amended the mode of distribution of oil revenues, brought to some municipalities, a new frontier of resources available by the distribution of oil royalties. Given this new frontier of resources, one wonders whether there is not relaxation in fiscal effort and an increasing inefficiency in the management of the administrative machinery by the benefited municipalities. The aim of this work is verify if petroleum revenues cause distortions in the way municipalities run their fiscal effort, that is, if the oil royalties contribute to increase inefficiencies in the municipalities involved in their search for the own revenues and their expense management. For this work, we selected 56 municipalities of the State of S??o Paulo which have been received the distribution of oil revenues during the period between the years 2005 to 2012. The efficiency of municipalities was obtained from a non-parametric production frontier model, the Data Envelopment Analysis - DEA, creating a ranking of the S??o Paulo municipalities which received oil royalties. Given the distribution rules of oil royalties imposed by the regulatory framework, the results showed the values distributed to S??o Paulo municipalities have great variability and has been showed relevant only in a few municipalities. There was no significant difference in the tax effort of the municipalities affected by the variable oil royalites. However, several factors related to municipal management indicated that such rents can contribute to increase inefficiencies in the management of municipal administrative machinery / A descentraliza????o federativa, promovida pela Constitui????o Federal de 1988, elevou os Munic??pios brasileiros ao importante papel na dissemina????o das pol??ticas p??blicas. Por estarem mais pr??ximos da popula????o, as decis??es realizadas na esfera municipal s??o prontamente percebidas pelos usu??rios e pelos cidad??os. Por outro lado, as demandas sociais e a administra????o da m??quina administrativa necessitam de uma gest??o financeira eficiente e uma constante busca por recursos. Adicionalmente, a Lei 9.478/97, que alterou o modo de distribui????o das rendas do petr??leo, trouxe, para alguns Munic??pios, uma nova fronteira de recursos, disponibilizada pela distribui????o dos royalties de petr??leo. Diante dessa nova fronteira de recursos, questiona-se se n??o h??, por parte dos Munic??pios beneficiados, um relaxamento no esfor??o fiscal e o aumento da inefici??ncia na gest??o da m??quina administrativa. Neste trabalho objetiva-se verificar se as rendas do petr??leo provocam distor????es na forma como os Munic??pios s??o conduzidos em seu esfor??o fiscal, ou seja, se os royalties de petr??leo contribuem para o aumento das inefici??ncias nos Munic??pios envolvidos em sua busca pelas receitas pr??prias e na sua gest??o de despesas. Para a realiza????o deste trabalho, foram selecionados 56 Munic??pios do Estado de S??o Paulo, contemplados pela distribui????o das rendas do petr??leo durante o per??odo compreendido entre os anos de 2005 a 2012. A efici??ncia dos Munic??pios foi obtida a partir de um modelo de fronteira de produ????o n??o param??trico, a An??lise Envolt??ria de Dados, criando um ranking dos Munic??pios paulistas beneficiados pelos royalties de petr??leo. Os resultados mostraram que, diante das regras de distribui????o dos royalties de petr??leo impostas pelo marco regulat??rio, os valores distribu??dos aos Munic??pios paulistas possuem grande variabilidade e s??o relevantes apenas em poucos Munic??pios. N??o houve diferen??a significativa no esfor??o fiscal dos Munic??pios afetados pela vari??vel royalites de petr??leo. No entanto, diversos fatores ligados ?? gest??o municipal indicaram que tais rendas contribuem para aumentar as inefici??ncias na gest??o da m??quina administrativa municipal