Although the national Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (MBI) is not intended to be a solution to service delivery problems, it does aim to improve efficiency and effectiveness by enabling municipalities to share knowledge on a peer-to-peer basis.

This is according to National Planning Commission commissioner Mike Muller and South African Local Government Association (Salga) water services director William Moraka.

The national MBI is a volunteer performance improvement system initiated in 2010 by Salga, the Water Research Commission (WRC), the Institute of Municipal Engineering South Africa and the eThekwini municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal.

The MBI was formed to help municipalities improve their service and operational performance by sharing information on key indicators and by setting benchmarks to either be equalled or exceeded.

The initiative uses a technological innovation through a Web-based system, called Munibench, which easily tracks municipal performance, enhances interactions between municipalities and undertakes comparative benchmarking among municipalities with similar characteristics.

eThekwini municipality head of water and sanitation and ambassador for the MBI programme Neil Macleod stresses that the MBI is only as effective as the information provided by the municipalities that participate and adds that many local municipalities do not have the operational capacity to engage in the initiative meaningfully.

“This is an initiative where the indicators have been chosen and defined by municipalities to improve performance, rather than regulate it, by setting even higher benchmarks, sharing experiences and discussing performances objectively and in a more structured way,” he explains.

All water service authorities have thus far committed to the MBI. Moraka says municipali- ties can participate in the MBI on a basic, an intermediate and an advanced level. It is a modular and tier-based approach, he adds.

Jay Bhagwan, executive manager of the WRC’s key strategic area 3, covering water use and wastewater management, notes that, owing to this approach, the MBI does not marginalise municipalities that are underperforming.

What Is Measured?
Six modules are measured under the MBI and include service delivery and backlogs, financial performance, water loss and demand management, human resources and skills development, operation and maintenance, and product quality.

Each module has a set of ten key performance indicators.

Moraka notes that the MBI is gaining momentum, as participating municipalities have enquired about improving their performance.

He adds that, although participation in the MBI is voluntary, “we are moving towards encouraging all municipalities to participate because we present them with a yearly report card on the basis of the six modules”.

Bhagwan says much knowledge and practice regarding service delivery and management cannot be found in textbooks, so the MBI creates a community of practice that is beneficial to municipalities.

The MBI will highlight improvement mechanisms to weaker municipalities and encourage them to realise that they can improve, says Muller.

“It can help and encourage political and administrative municipal officials to review their performance and identify areas in which they can do better. It will also help them to identify municipalities that are doing well to which they can turn for ideas and assistance.

“It will also give the local citizens or water users a better idea of how well their municipality is doing and where it must improve. It will help hold officials accountable and indicate where they can and must improve,” he explains.

However, Muller cautions that, with benchmarking, there is always a danger that organisations could become more interested in their scores than in what citizens need.

He stresses that benchmarking would, therefore, have to be carefully managed, as it must be acknowledged that the views and experiences of water users are as important as the service providers’ reports.

Macleod notes that a lack of skills might prevent smaller local municipalities from participating fully and suggests that more funding should be made available to provide more support for struggling municipalities.

Peer Pressure
While Moraka believes that the MBI will not create unhealthy rivalry between municipalities, Macleod says competition is not necessarily discouraged.

Bhagwan states that the subtle peer pressure created through benchmarking will drive performance improvements to encourage under- performing municipalities to equal the performance of those performing on a higher level.

South African Institution of Civil Engineering VP Chris Herold believes that “naming and shaming through public comparison with other municipalities” might be beneficial.

“[But] the effect might be diluted somewhat if dysfunctional municipalities can hide in the majority. The MBI could also easily dissolve into yet another paper exercise and political expe- diency might get away,” he warns.

Meanwhile, Moraka believes that a synergy could be created between the MBI and the Department of Water Affairs’ Blue and Green Drop certification processes.

Macleod agrees that the MBI and Blue Drop and Green Drop certification are complementary.

“The MBI indicators are set by municipalities and are designed to support performance improvement. The results are available far more quickly than the Blue Drop and Green Drop scores and there is far more disclosure to participants. The Blue Drop and Green Drop system is a regulatory tool that does not meet the developmental needs of local government,” he says.

Muller says that while it is still too early to ascertain whether the MBI will be effective, the Blue Drop programme has helped some municipalities focus on service improvement and notes that the MBI could build on that.

Operational Challenges
Moraka notes that while the large metropoli- tan councils are performing satisfactorily on the whole and are meeting expectations, some district municipalities are not.

He attributes this to operational challenges, the large areas they have to manage, the various topographies and the indigent population that municipalities have to collect revenue from.
“We have not invested enough money in operation and maintenance in those areas and, to some extent, the ageing infrastructure [aggravates] that. In some parts of the country, there is an emerging trend of infrastructure vandalism and illegal water connections as communities are becoming impatient. These affect how municipalities operate at district level,” Moraka explains.

Herold confirms this by adding that the larger metropolitans are currently delivering good-quality water reliably and, while a few medium-sized and small municipalities are doing the same, many are failing, especially in the delivery of sanitation services.

Further, Moraka stresses that skills retention is one of the major problems facing municipalities and adds that the decrease in the level of water management at municipalities can be attributed to this. He adds that there are also not sufficient engineering skills in South Africa and not enough has been invested to bridge the skills gap.

Muller believes that while there are technical and management problems in municipalities, there is also an overarching political issue.

The Constitution enables municipalities to exercise a great deal of autonomy, but also requires provincial governments to monitor their municipalities’ performance and intervene if it is below standard, he says.

“However, provincial political leaders depend on local party branches for their support, so they are often reluctant to take action against them. This makes it difficult for a central government to intervene or for local residents to hold officials accountable, which can create a culture of impunity,” Muller states.

Further, he says some municipalities have limited human and financial resources, which need to be used more effectively to achieve objectives.

Bhagwan says that, over the past 25 years, the democratically elected South African government has tried to integrate water supply systems and fix the ills of apartheid, which perpetuated poverty and the marginalisation of communities.

Attention to the operation, maintenance and ongoing replacement of infrastructure was neglected and the consequences are currently affecting the sector, he says.

Moraka adds that correct service charges are not set, resulting in a year-on-year under- recovery because the correct revenue is not collected, which, in turn, makes it difficult for municipalities to invest correctly in infrastructure replacement.

More investment in infrastructure will result in lower levels of risk of infrastructure failures or supply interruptions. Further, first-rate technologies need to be adopted, as some of the current technologies are outdated.

Herold says excessive water losses pose major threats and highlights the importance of immediately curtailing water leaks.

He adds that pipes bursting with increasing frequency create significant inconvenience, subsequently causing the proliferation of potholes. Water losses also result in higher costs for citizens, as municipalities have to buy more purified water than is actually used.

“Even more seriously, profligate water use cuts to the core of water security by overexploiting our limited water resources, plunging our most strategic water supply systems into deficit.”

Herold notes that the poor water-demand management and water services are only the symptoms of the challenges.

Besides the significant reduction in engineers and engineering technicians at municipalities, they have also not been able to attract new talent or retain employees, he says.

“The truth is that we have created engineer- unfriendly organisations. This is why the professionals who are so desperately needed to make our municipalities work have been leaving in droves,” Herold concludes.