President Cyril Ramaphosa has severely criticised the over-use of consultants in municipalities.
Image: Phando Jikelo / Parliament of SA
The excessive use of consultants to perform some of the work of municipalities is depleting the internal capacity of these entities and putting them under financial pressure.
Councillors and local government experts state that while there are some cases where the use of consultants is necessary, it is unacceptable to use them for tasks that should be performed by municipal staff. They have spoken on the issue following a warning by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
There are growing calls for councils to rely on internal staff capacity and scale back the use of consultants for tasks that should typically be performed by municipal officials. The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) has previously raised concerns about the amount of money spent by municipalities on consultants, saying for the last financial year alone R1.4 billion was spent on these services.
The AGSA has also highlighted that even when financial statements are prepared by consultants, material misstatements are often found, calling into question the value for money of this service in some cases.
Speaking at the ANC conference in Limpopo on Sunday, President Ramaphosa said that some municipal functions must be insourced. He noted that the excessive use of consultants was having a destructive impact on the skills and capacity of staff in municipalities.
“The problem is that in the municipalities, we have outsourced everything; some of the things must be insourced. The use of consultants has depleted the skills in some municipalities because all the functions are now being done by consultants,” he said.
He warned that functions ranging from preparing financial statements to cutting grass are being outsourced. For instance, he mentioned that in one municipality in the Free State, everything was being done by consultants, from financial reports to other issues.
“Municipal staff come to their offices and do nothing all day because consultants are handling all the work, and they are the ones being paid. The consultants are also paid, some of them as much as R34 million each month; they are paid first, even before the salaries of the municipal workers,” said the president, pointing out that such a situation is unacceptable.
Local government expert Mike Sutcliffe said the issue of competency and capacity in municipalities is a serious problem.
“In some cases, it is not only a hollowing out of skills; it is that a wrong decision was made in the appointment, as there could be a lot of corruption and nepotism in some municipalities, where they (municipal recruiters) would hire someone who does not have the skills to do the work.”
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