The municipal manager of Musina, Mr Nathi Tshiwanammbi, said the administrative team of the municipality was committed to the ethics of clean governance and responsible utilization of government resources.
Tshiwanammbi was responding to questions from councillors during the municipal public accounts committee (MPAC) public hearing for the 2016/17 annual report. The hearing was held at Masisi Community Hall last Friday.
The MPAC undertakes and manages similar functions and responsibilities for municipalities to those undertaken by the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in the national and provincial legislatures, except for certain powers regarding the right to subpoena individuals. It is the committee of a municipal council that ensures that the finances of the municipality are handled well in terms of legislative frameworks.
Among the issues clarified during the hearing are the root causes of the municipality's challenges, the corrective measures to improve cash flow, financial recovery plans, the alignment between the service delivery budget implementation plan (SDBIP) and the budget and beefing up of revenue enhancement in the municipality.
MPAC chairperson in the Musina Municipality Cllr Philemon Nare said legislation required a certain level of oversight by the municipality over the executive authority. He said accountability and oversight could be most effective if recognised by those in power as promoting accountability and good governance, which in turn were there to enhance performance, effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery.
"Oversight and accountability help to ensure that the municipality implements programmes and plans in a way consistent with policy, legislation and the dictates of the Constitution. The functionality of the internal governance arrangements in a municipality is to a large extent determined by the effectiveness of its committee system and oversight in the municipality."
Also in attendance were traditional leaders, members of ward committees, community structures and interested members of the public.