​ Rofhiwa Marubini​
The Gauteng Municipalities Committee of Inquiry has identified 12 areas that the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) should focus on in improving municipalities in the province.
This was revealed by Gauteng MEC for Cogta, Lebogang Maile during the releaseof the Gauteng Municipalities Committee of Inquiry Report, at Ormonde Johannesburg on Tuesday, 16 March.
In September 2019, MEC Maile appointed a Committee of Inquiry led by Professor Trevor Fowler to conduct an inquiry into the state of affairs in Gauteng's eleven municipalities based on sound financial governance, institutional capability and effective service delivery. 
Amongst other issues that were flagged in the report were ethics, transparency, fairness, value for money and competitive procurement. 
"Here we are talking about ethics relating to many problems encountered in procurement and tendering processes at municipalities, said Maile 
The MEC said the roll-out of the open tender system across all municipalities will help address these challenges.  "We want to implement this. It will help with corruption and irregular expenditure, among other issues," he said.
The municipalities were also facing challenges of lack of compliance with procure3ment processes which opened doors for corruption.
"There is a municipality where every Friday they steal the electricity cables or cut them off so that there can be emergency procurement. The community wants electricity. When you do emergency procurement, you don't follow processes and that's where issues of corruption come in. There must be development but also compliance to the constitution," said Maile.
The report showed that the administrative and political interface was a sensitive area which officials were reluctant to discuss honestly.
Among other recommendations, the committee suggested that each region have a centralised vision.
"We need to have a dedicated vision for each region because each region is unique. The one-size-fit-all approach must be done away with," added Maile.