Africa-Press – Botswana. Kgatleng District is reviewing its standing orders in an effort to improve efficiency and productivity.
The move is in accordance with Local government Act of 2012 that gives council powers to make orders.
Nominated councillor, Ms Dorah Modipane said on Tuesday when presenting a progress report by the review committee, which she leads, that councillors would have opportunity to make input.
Key issues were the number of sessions that the council should have annually or per financial year, clearly defined sessions with specific thematic issues, discussion of way forward on motions that had financial implications and restructuring of council key committees, she said.
Some of the proposals by the review committee were that the duration of full council meetings should run up to eight days as per a June 20 Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development savingram, as opposed to the current five days.
Furthermore, to align the standing orders with Section 26 (3) of the Local Government Act, council chairperson may at any time, and shall on the request of not less than one third of the members of the council in writing, call a special meeting.
In addition, special meeting requests through the council secretary shall specify the matter for consideration and the date for such special meeting shall be at the council chairperson’s discretion after consulting with the council secretary, she said.
The proposed amendments further called for restructuring of council committees according to their mandates in order to unburden existing committees.
The committee also proposed that the Finance & General purposes committee be reorganised to deal with key departments that included Treasury, Procurement, Legal and Commercial, while that for Community Development & Social Services would receive reports from the departments of Social Services Division, Community Development and Disaster Relief.
Ms Modipane said proposed new committees were that for Local Economic Development (LED), which would be the investment arm of the council and would deal with Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and the Kgatleng District Development Foundation (KDDF) to create some income streams for the Kgatleng District Council as well as for Audit, to be chaired by the minority party representative.
She said the committee would have fair representation of political parties to avoid suppression of voice of the minority/opposition party or parties. She said a proposal had been made that due diligence should be exercised in the formation of the committees to ensure equitable representation, save for specific committees with a purpose-defined mandate such as the audit committee.
Another proposed amendment was that there should be equitable participation in council committees for purposes of efficiency and good governance and that a determination shall be made based on the average number of committees that each councillor shall be a member of.
Furthermore, she said, the committee proposed that the council chairperson in consultation with the chief executive officer shall convene an all party caucus twice a year as stipulated in the Local Government Act of 2012.
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