Question NW3711 to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
04 November 2015 - NW3711
Bhanga, Mr BM to ask the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Whether his department participated in the Institute of Municipal Finance Officers Conference held in Ekurhuleni in October 2015; if so, (a) what was the nature of the participation, (b) what were the costs associated with such participation, (c) what were the specified costs intended to cover and (d) why was his department’s stand at the specified conference unmanned?
Reply:
Yes. The Department participated in the Institute of Municipal Finance Officers Conference (IMFO) held in Ekurhuleni in October 2015.
(a) The Executive Manager: Municipal Audit Outcomes and Revenue Management participated as a panel member on the Effective Governance – Audit & Risk Management Back to Basics: Ethics enhancing local government accountability discussion. The panellists made a brief presentation on the subject and fielded specific questions from the floor.
The Senior Manager Revenue Management and the Manager Municipal Audit Outcomes participated as delegates to the conference; they are the relevant personnel to attend because of the municipal financial management support nature of their work that is directly linked to the work of IMFO.
(b) Conference fees amounting to R 6906.50 per person, were paid for the two delegates. No conference fees were paid for the Executive Manager, as she was participating on IMFO’s invitation as a panellist.
(c) The conference fees amounting to R 6906.50 per person (R13 813 in total) covered the attendance of the conference for the three days. The topics of interest to the department were the following: Back to Basics Sound Governance in relation to Audit Opinions, Effective Governance, Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts, Revenue Value Chain, Ethics Enhancing Local Government Accountability, Role of Councillors in Financial Management, Oversight, Effective Performance Management Systems in the Local Government and The Implication in Implementing the central database: Local Government.
(d) To the best of our knowledge, the Departmental stand was manned throughout the conference, one staff member from the department was assigned for the exhibition. The setup of the stall commenced on the 04 October and the stall was only dismantled on the 07th October at 14:00 after the conference.