Abstract
The primary focus of this study is on examining the factors that influence municipal managers’ compliance with the Local Government: Municipal Financial Management Act (56 of 2003) (MFMA) within South African municipalities. The adoption and introduction of the Act aimed to “secure sound and sustainable management of the fiscal and financial affairs of municipalities and other institutions in the local sphere of government; to establish treasury norms and standards for the local sphere of government; and to provide for matters connected therewith”. According to Section 60 of the MFMA, the municipal manager is also the accounting officer of the municipality and is responsible for ensuring and providing guidance on the implementation and compliance with all the Act’s provisions. Numerous empirical studies and audit outcomes on municipalities’ performances revealed that most municipalities in South Africa often disregard legislative requirements, and that most of the non-compliance occurs in areas that municipal managers are accountable for. This study aims to discuss the factors that influence municipal managers’ compliance with the MFMA within South African municipalities, moreover, to analyse whether the Act creates opportunities for municipal managers to disregard the set requirements of the legislation.
This study’s research methodology was predominantly qualitative, in that it relied extensively on the utilisation of documents and reports in providing pertinent answers to the research problem.
The primary findings of the research study revealed that there are several factors that influence municipal managers’ compliance with the MFMA within South African municipalities. These include inter alia factors such as: the lack of accountability; the lack of consequence management; the lack of political oversight; the lack of competencies and vacant management positions; cadre deployment; slow responses by municipal managers and political leaders; political interferences; non-compliance and lack of implementation; and corruption. To deal with or address the aforementioned factors, the study recommended the following strategies and measures: the enhancement of accountability; the enforcement of consequence
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management; the use of an independent compliance officer or unit; the empowerment
of MPACs; the improvement of compliance with legislation; the improvement of responses to audit recommendations; and the establishment of effective measures to prevent political interferences in South African municipalities.
KEY WORDS: Compliance; Legislation; Local government; Municipal manager; Non-compliance