Performance Management

Performance Agreements and Plans 2015/16

Performance Management Framework

Performance Agreements and Plans 2016/17

Performance Management is a process which measures the implementation of the organisation’s strategy. It is also a management tool to plan, monitor, measure and review performance indicators to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and the impact of service delivery by the municipality.

At local government level performance management is institutionalized through the legislative requirements on the performance management process for Local Government. Performance management provides the mechanism to measure whether targets to meet its strategic goals, set by the organisation and its employees, are met.

The constitution of S.A (1996), section 152, dealing with the objectives of local government paves the way for performance management with the requirements for an “accountable government”. The democratic values and principles in terms of section 195 (1) are also linked with the concept of Performance management, with reference to the principles of inter alia: 

• the promotion of efficient, economic and effective use of resources,
• accountable public administration
• to be transparent by providing information,
• to be responsive to the needs of the community,
• and to facilitate a culture of public service and accountability amongst staff.

The Municipal Systems Act (MSA), 2000 requires municipalities to establish a performance management system. Further, the MSA and the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) requires the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) to be aligned to the municipal budget and to be monitored for the performance of the budget against the IDP via the Service Delivery and the Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP).

In addition, Regulation 7 (1) of the Local Government: Municipal Planning and Performance Management Regulations, 2001 states that “A  Municipality’s Performance Management System entails a framework that describes and represents how the municipality’s cycle and processes of performance planning, monitoring, measurement, review, reporting and improvement will be conducted, organised and managed, including determining the roles of the different role players.”

Section 57 of the MSA makes the employment of the Municipal Manager and Managers directly accountable to him subject to a separate performance agreement concluded annually before the end of July each year. Section 67 regards the monitoring, measuring and evaluating of performance of staff as a platform to develop human resources and to hold municipal staff accountable to serve the public efficiently and effectively. Performance Management, therefore, is not only relevant to the organisation as a whole, but also to the individuals employed in the organisation as well as the external service providers and the Municipal Entitites.

Organisational Performance Management Cycles
The overall planning, budgeting and reporting cycle can be summarised as follows:

Source: Framework for Managing Programme Performance Information

Kindly contact the IDP & PMS Unit at 044 801 9471 for more detail on Organisational Performance Management.