Cape Town – National government is not
necessarily better than sub-national government at delivering services, according
to the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC).
The FFC briefed media on Monday on its
submission for the division of revenue for 2019/20, which it tabled in
Parliament on May 31.
The report provides recommendations to
government to inform policies. It is not binding by the Constitution – but
government is required to seriously consider the recommendations. When National
Treasury tables the National Budget, it has to comment on whether it has
considered the FFC's recommendations.
At the briefing, FFC chairperson
Professor Daniel Plaatjies spoke of recentralisation of functions to national government
to ensure "better value for money" and improved service delivery. An
example of this would be the North West province being placed under
administration.
This was not always the best solution,
however, he said.
"The commission recommends that
government should not automatically increase the role of national
government," Plaatjies said.
"Problems with provinces and
municipalities [delivering] services are not necessarily going to be solved
when national government takes over."
Instead, government should consider
addressing capacity issues at sub-national level, he argued. This could be
through policies, an implementation plan for policies, a system with capable
people and resources, or fiscal transfers, among other things.
Case studies
Sasha Peters, researcher and programme
manager of the national budget analysis unit, said the FFC investigated two
case studies of recentralisation.
The first was the transfer of Technical
and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to the national sphere. The
other case was earmarked grants, where national government played a strong role
in advising sub-national government on how it could spend the funds.
In both cases, in terms of spend and
service delivery, performance was not necessarily better with the national
sphere of government overseeing things, she said. Rather, it is better for
government to look at other options, such as "capacitating"
subnational governments before relocating functions.
The FFC also recommended that
government should continually assess the impact of different funding
instruments on service delivery performance. Government should take a "targeted"
approach to implementing reforms.
Recentralisation reforms should involve
careful assessment, they said, and policy priorities should be linked with
funding and institutional capabilities.
One
size doesn't fit all
Professor Nico Steytler, who is also
part of the commission, said a "blanket" approach to recentralisation
did not always work. He pointed out that only some TVETs were problematic, but
all TVETs were shifted to national government when it was not necessary.
Similarly, with the North West being in
crisis and being placed under administration in terms of s100 and s139 of the
Constitution, it must not be assumed that the same approach will fit for other
provinces, he argued.
Capacity
Plaatjies pointed out that capacity
should be viewed within the context of public sector productivity.
"Public sector productivity is a
key matter which evades conversation," he said. This often involves waste
in public service, errors, and the compounding effects of people manipulating
processes and leakages in systems.
The reorganisation of local government
is part of a bigger discussion on productivity, the FFC said. Plaatjies said the
FFC had raised concerns over municipalities that would be unsustainable and pose
a drain on the fiscus.
If there was limited economic activity
in a given municipality, it was perhaps worth reorganising local government to
"stop the drain in certain places of the fiscus and financial
resources", he said.
Plaatjies added that the FFC was
looking forward to the outcomes of the president’s decision to reorganise
national government.
"In the same way, we need reorganisation
of what is happening in provinces and in the municipalities,” he said. The idea
of a regional government was conceivable, he said, as in the case of the three metros
in Gauteng.
He also said no "one size fits
all" approach would work in dealing with provinces and municipalities.
"I can guarantee you – given what
has happened over years – what happens in national government has a spill-over
into provinces and municipalities," he said.
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