The development of a service delivery index for municipalities

• Main Author: Van der Walt, Tjaart Andries
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Local government evaluation; Customer services
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2191

D.Phil. === Performance management has become legislative requirement for municipalities in South Africa. Unfortunately, not many tools exist to measure and monitor municipal service delivery effectively. Municipal managers and politicians require accurate information to ensure that their decisions are not based on emotions and assumptions but that the information with regards to municipal service delivery is accurate and relevant. Descriptions and terminology used to describe engineering services are sometimes complex and confusing. To aggravate the situation, technical and non-technical people seem unable to communicate effectively about township engineering services. The development of the Service Delivery Index is a helpful tool in providing decision makers with accurate information. The index translate engineering services and service delivery aspects into numerical data that can also be represented graphically. The Service Delivery Index for municipalities comprises four components of engineering services being delivered in residential areas. The components are infrastructure quality, delivery efficiency, access to services and affordability. Each component comprises specific elements that are measured on a regular basis such as payment levels, proportion of household income to service charges, service interruptions, response times to outages and service levels. Not only can services be measured and represented graphically, they can also be compared and over time to establish trends. Desegregation of the index is easy. The index system allows municipalities to provide service delivery information to communities effectively and transparently and in an easily comprehensible manner. Components of the index can also be linked to a GIS system to display different aspects of service delivery geographically. The index system in combination with services costs graphs can also be utilised to make instant and accurate assessments of upgrading costs for township services. The data used for the compilation of the index is normally readily available form Census data, financial statements and departmental job evaluation reports. The index also effectively addresses the issue of communication between technical and non-technical people with the aid of graphical presentations.