Client: Western Cape Provincial Government
A total of 404 businesses responded to a survey to inform the identification of municipal red tape issues which were then prioritised. Detailed action plans were developed to address the following municipal red tape issues: problems with the tender specification process including corruptionl weaknesses in quality control processes to monitor project delivery; a lack of coordination within supply chain with duplicate tenders for the same kind of work issued by different officials due to poor communication within the Municipality; weaknesses in the management of informal trading and by-law enforcement; lack of certainty in the way in which Bulk Infrastructure Contributions are applied and managed by the Municipality; delays in the payment of invoices to municipal service providers; weaknesses in tracking service delivery complaints and lack of service delivery standards in terms of how long certain standardised decisions and service delivery processes should take; access to land for black, small businesses, informal traders and emerging farmers; the land sub-divisions application process is not perceived to be transparent or fair; RDP houses are not being transferred into private ownership timeously resulting in municipalities not being able to act against illegal residents, land uses and activities (especially spaza shops) where these are operated from RDP houses which are still in State ownership; building plans are not always approved within the regulated 30 day time-frame and are also not necessarily always compliant with regulations exposing the community to potential disaster risks (such as fire) and the municipality to potential liability risks. A detailed red tape reduction case study on Swartland Municipality was drafted highlighting key municipal wide systemic success factors contributing to muncipal efficiency and effectivess.
