A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Building to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / Payments are an essential component of construction contracts (Murdoch and Hughs, 2015). The nature of the payment regime has an effect on the contractor’s cash flow, project performance and therefore achievement of project objectives. Finance has been claimed as the most important resource in the construction process (Mawdesley et al., 1997). As such, proper financial planning to ensure healthy cash flow during the lifespan of a project is central to its performance and ultimate success. The obligation of an employer is to pay the contractor timeously, as per agreed payment plan and likewise the obligation of a contractor is to produce the build works according to an agreed schedule of works and to set standards of quality. Project finance in its totality is therefore of major importance to the progression of the construction process. Purpose - The main purpose of this study is to identify current problems in relation to late payment issues encountered by contractors that have been commissioned to construct public infrastructure for the government of South Africa. The paper seeks to highlight the extent of occurrence, to measure, and to assess the extent of late payment, in public infrastructure projects in the Gauteng Province. This study is done with a view to study the correlative relationship between the deviance in contractually scheduled payment time and time of actual payment and to identify factors that influence these. Design methodology and approach – With regard to research methods, the study adopts a mixed approach. Both Qualitative and Quantitative approaches to the study were adopted. This was done by collecting data through structured questionnaires and the research instruments administered to key personnel in the various Sector Departments as well as the Finance Department and the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development. Sample invoices were gleaned and scrutinized from 189 projects with regard to invoice payment data. Respondents were asked to provide information on Invoice Date, Date Invoice Received By Department and Date Invoice Paid On. This information was gathered for approximately half the total number of invoices received per project. Adopting a project by project approach, respondents were asked to provide data and causal factors linked to late payment. The results were then analyzed to determine significant relationships between late payment patterns and the factors that influence these. / XL2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 31 March 2014 / This thesis was designed to examine the South African state’s capacity in the provision of basic services. State capacity is defined as the ability of the political system to enforce rules and deliver services. This reinforcement of control by the state over persons and resources within governments is critical for the performance of a political system. State capacity is therefore vital in ensuring that the provision of basic services is satisfactory and sustainable so as to optimise client satisfaction. Sedibeng is a District Municipality in one of the nine South African provinces called Gauteng Province. In spite of its rich and enduring political history and heavy industry, the situation in Sedibeng is partly attributable to the lack of adequate skills capacity with which to drive service delivery in the area. Within this context, this investigation sought to explore the role of state capacity in the provision of basic services to citizens at local government level by focusing on three local municipalities: Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi. The research was underpinned by four inter-related and mutually reinforcing concepts positioned within the context of local government, namely skills capacity-building, leadership and governance, performance management and service delivery. This conceptual framework was based on the assumption that skills capacity-building is a catalyst or enabler in enhancing leadership, governance and the overall performance of organisations. A qualitative research approach through interviews, focus groups and document analysis was adopted. The researcher also used a case study design and its advantage is that, apart from it enabling understanding of the contextual issues impacting skills capacity-building, it also provided an ideal opportunity for the researcher to tap into the vast municipal experiences of Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi. Of importance was the contribution of executive managers, senior managers and ward councillors regarding the state of skills capacity, the process followed to implement skills capacity and to learn whether skills capacity efforts have been used to improve employee performance in the provision of service. From the cross-case analysis involving the three municipalities, it emerged that despite the common difficulties encountered in organisational culture, resource for capacity-building initiatives, recruitment, selection and retention strategies and aligning skills capacity with the municipal strategic direction, the skills capacity-building initiatives were being implemented with some degree of success. The findings of the study concluded that although there had been significant progress in the implementation of skills capacity-building programmes in Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi, it is not clear whether these training initiatives were producing the desired outputs across Sedibeng’s three municipalities as a step to provide and improve service delivery, as the scope, intensity and sustainability of these efforts varied markedly across the three local municipalities. The investigation also revealed that there was no evidence of monitoring and evaluation with intense feedback and review of the progress made through skills capacity-building. Further findings were the loss of skilled and highly experienced employees and managers, which undermined the organisational memory which is critical for strategic planning and effective service delivery in any institution. Even though the researcher had assumed that skills capacity-building was the most important ingredient in service delivery, the findings of the study revealed that training is not the only important variable needed to improve service delivery in local municipalities. Other crucial variables include the alignment of training with performance management, career management, reward systems, skills transfer, employee welfare and retention strategy for the protection and preservation of organisational memory. The study concludes that learning provides the intellectual basis which stimulates the impetus for effective and sustainable organisational memory, which in turn plays a key role in facilitating strategic planning, skills formation, staff motivation and retention to improve service delivery. This learning emphasises the important consideration to locate the problematic of organisational memory towards possible improvement of service delivery where skills capacity and other related factors play a major role. The contribution of this thesis to the body of knowledge is underpinned by the interface between learning and organisational memory as surfacing beyond skills capacity and as a necessity to enhance service delivery in municipalities. / MT2016

Via six published papers, this thesis assembles a body of work by Simmons on user participation and involvement in the governance and delivery of public services in the UK. Collectively, the papers examine how users are able, and what makes them willing, to interact with public services in order to maintain or improve them. Cumulatively, the published papers contribute to a more detailed and nuanced understanding of user involvement and participation, enabling deeper understanding of users’ motivations and experiences, the choices available to them and how these are constrained. The published papers are contextualised in a linking narrative. This locates the papers within wider debates about the place and role of service user involvement and participation and how this has evolved over the last fifty years (Section 3). It then considers a range of broader literatures, selected to capture key elements of the conceptual and theoretical questions to which the papers are addressed (Section 4). A summary of each publication is provided, detailing its individual contribution to the participation literature (Section 5). The papers’ cumulative contribution is then considered (Section 6). Together, the six publications contribute to deeper understandings of both user involvement (establishing nuances in user attitudes and behaviour), and the possibilities that arise within different spaces for involvement (according to such factors as who the participants are, what they connect with (service, service providers, service context), and how these connections form distinctive ‘fields' of relationships). This thesis suggests these things all matter when it comes to users finding their voice - and user knowledge being incorporated into the governance and delivery of public services. It concludes that users’ ‘projects’ of involvement and participation (and the environments for those projects) are often complex, bringing together a range of different forces that must be balanced within the public service system.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 187-192. / Ph.D.

This study is on coproduction as a governing policy instrument. Coproduction can be understood as the joint production of services by local officials and individual citizens intended to raise the quality and or amount of service provision. The concept of coproduction as developed in this study suggests that urban services are not simply created by officials and delivered to a passive public. Rather that actions of citizens are an integral part of the service production process. The study purposes are two-fold: (1) to construct a model of coproduction which provides a basis by which citizen involvement in the provision of public services can be fully understood and appreciated; and (2) to examine the usefulness of this model by using it to frame and guide evaluative research on a specific program which targets coproductive participation of citizens. The research examined efforts to implement a program to encourage recycling by residents in multifamily complexes in the City of Portland by involving the direct participation of the managers of the complexes. The research conducted in this study addressed both the inputs and outcomes of citizen involvement in coproduction. Findings of this research are suggestive of the potential importance of both inclusion and volition to furthering citizen involvement in the coproductive process. The level of citizen involvement in producing the programmatic outcomes was by most measures demonstrated to be very important. The results of the investigation in demonstrating the importance of involvement in coproduced programs in generating broader levels of community awareness and involvement, however, were not as conclusive. The model of coproduction developed in this study provides a potentially useful conceptualization of the process and outcomes of coproduction. The empirical investigation provides an assessment of the nature and strength of the relationship between citizen involvement and the coproductive process in the case of Portland's multifamily recycling program. Both the economic and civic considerations of coproduction which were specified and measured in the research contribute to a number of observations about coproduction as a policy instrument leading to several policy recommendations for programs which are built on citizen involvement.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2004 / Refer to document

Thesis (M. Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / A large percentage of the national budget goes to municipalities to provide services to communities. Since 2000, National Treasury has been increasing the budget to municipalities to enable them to deliver better quality services and to expand the provision of basic amenities. Despite this huge financial investment, there is still poor access and use of social and infrastructure services by most communities in South Africa. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the institutional capacity of municipalities in delivering services to communities: a case study of the Polokwane Municipality in Limpopo. This case study used various data-collecting methods such as interviews, documentation and archival records to come to a conclusion. An interview schedule was used in this study to allow the key respondents to give more detailed information about the problems or challenges facing the municipality in delivering services. The study concluded that the Polokwane Municipality has the necessary institutional capacity to deliver on its constitutional mandate. However, there are specific capacity challenges that need to be addressed.

Thesis (MPA.) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / The study is an evaluation of the challenges that the Thulamela Municipality face in the delivery of water and sanitation services. The purpose of the study was to find ways of improving service delivery and addressing backlogs so that sustainable delivery of water and sanitation services can be achieved. A descriptive quantitative method was conducted using a questionnaire, peer-reviewed journals, books and official documentation. The Thulamela Local Municipality is based at Vhembe District in Limpopo Province. The study shows that there is a serious challenge of backlogs in water and sanitation delivery. These will be difficult to overcome due to financial constraint and, lack of human capacity and technical resources. The researcher concluded that the municipality has serious backlogs in service provision which needed to be addressed urgently. She recommends that the municipality should outsource some services, provide efficient and effective resource to ensure that there is sustainable service provision.

by Pitu Mirchandani. / Prepared under National Science Foundation Grant GI38004. OR 039-74. / Bibliography: leaf 15.

M. Tech. Business Administration / Residents of the municipalities of Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld townships in Tshwane have protested over poor municipal service delivery since 2008. Although attempts have been made by the three municipalities to address complaints made by residents, there are dissatisfactions among ordinary residents about poor service delivery. There are few studies conducted in this regard. The study was conducted in an attempt to identify and quantify factors that are known to affect the quality of municipal services in Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld as a means of assessing and finding out if interventions carried out by local governments have resulted in positive outcomes. The key objective of study was to assess the quality of municipal services that are delivered to residents of Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld municipalities with a view to identify the root causes of dissatisfaction and protests made by residents. The study places a particular emphasis on the delivery of water, power and sanitation services to residents living in Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld.