Effectiveness of supply chain management of service delivery in Mahikeng Local Municipality

Abstract

The continuous service delivery protests by residents of the Mahikeng Local Municipality has most often than not occurred as a result of inefficiency in service delivery functions of the supply chain management section.This unresolved situation over the years, prompted the researcher to investigate the effectiveness of the Mahikeng Local Municipality Supply Chain Management section with regard to service delivery. A purely quantitative research approach was adopted for this study. Data was collected by the use of closed-ended self-designed questionnaires that was completed by 100 randomly selected employees from the municipality who are involved or have previously been involved in the Supply Chain Management process. Findings from the study indicate that although the Supply Chain Management procedures in place are in line with legislation, the employees involved often do not follow those procedures the reason is that at times, they are under political influence and thus fear of losing their jobs. This is further evident by the high amounts of irregular expenditure, unauthorised spending, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The unfortunate challenge resulting from this predicament is that there is usually lack of accountability and because of that the SCM polices are not effectively implemented which negatively impacts service delivery of the Mahikeng Local Municipality. This seems to be a common if not major problem faced by other municipalities in the North West Region. Moreover, the supply chain management officials are not sure or aware of the exactissues causing the expenditure irregularities, for example there is evidence of a bid without original tax clearance, BBBEE certificate, signed declaration of interest. In spite of the challenges encountered, the Mahikeng Local Municipality must continue to thrive in improving the implementation of the supply chain management principles and ensure that transparency is achieved in the public sector. It is recommended that if the Mahikeng Local Municipality is unable to implement the supply chain management principles correctly, they can engage experts to assist them with the correct implementation and ensure that efficiency and effectiveness is achieved.