I am both excited and despondent about the possibilities of improving Local
Government Management and what that could mean to the customers of local
municipalities.

As one working in a local municipality who wants to see that becomming more
effective, the iLGM appears to be an exciting initiative and I would want to
experience and to be part of the success I hope it could generate. But as
one who has seen how and the extent to which 'crony-ism' has affected
appointments and procurement processes in the LM, by placing people with
inappropriate qualifications and experience in the structure and by
permitting abuse of their procurement authorities, I suspect that there is
an enormous obstacle to improving LGM that has little to do with either
capacity or the will to improve management.

In my particular municipality there has been extensive political influence
in these matters. It is my impression that the 'influence' has now become
entrenched in the institutional structures through particular appointments
so it will continue to dominate.

I really do wish to see an improvement to local government management and
function that will make a huge, positive difference to the delivery that the
local population experiences. Unless the 'cancer' of 'cronyism' is
identified and its past and future effects are radically dealt with, I think
that the best will or management improvements will have little effect.

Does this constraint feature in your institute's approach to improving local
government management and if so, how?

I am based on a multi-task enviroment where sometimes you learn things as you do. The main key is to treat any tasks uniquely. Treat every task as a project (Time frame, Cost efective, High quality), then the management principles will be more fluent.

I am based under the technical department, so I have learnt that is it very fruitful to keep the team well infomed. This is achieved by sending the employees on short courses that are work related.
This assists employees to know more than the job description.