PART 2 SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
2.10 A NNUAL BUDGETS AND SDBIP S – INTERNAL DEPARTMENTS
2.10.5 CORPORATE LEGAL SERVICES
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Table 56 Operating Budget of the Communication & Branding Department
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PROJECT NAME PROJECT DESCRIPTION
municipalities e.g. building contraventions
and grant law-enforcement access throughout the City of Ekurhuleni
Effective management of Public
Protector issues The department receives complaints from Public Protector, and refer to relevant internal Departments; and facilitate adequate and timeous responses to this Chapter 9 institution
A functional Contract Management System
The department receives instructions to vet/ draft SLAs after the award by BAC/ City Manager and responds within 10 (vetting) /20(drafting) days as applicable. The function also include vetting and drafting of other contacts other than SLAs
Improved effectiveness of the executive process-flow system
The process flow system is a system in terms of which reports are created throughout the Municipality and submitted electronically for inclusion on the Agenda of various committees until reports are submitted to the Mayoral committee for approval.
The system tracks the item flow until resolution by Mayoral committee or recommendations of the MAYCO are referred to Council (Legislature) for consideration.
Compliance with the requirements of the Records Management System
To promote appropriate government record management strategies that ensure compliance with the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act (No43 of 1996, as amended).
A harmonised single body of By- laws for the city of Ekurhuleni
To develop a harmonious set of City By-laws to ensure certainty, uniformity and enforceable by-laws. To ensure that By-laws are applicable to the entire CoE; and are in line with superior legislation and court decisions so that they can be an effective governance tool, and be enforced in a court of law.
Mitigation of risks occasioned by litigation against the CEO
To ensure compliance with various pieces of legislation, by providing legal comments and guidance to Council and its structures.
To assess legal risk and to identify issues arising from other departments with a view to reducing legal risk and unnecessary litigation.
To provide interventions in the form of workshops and information sessions to address problems that cause legal risk and which have a potential for litigation.
Compliance with draft/new
legislation To ensure that all functionaries are aware of new legislation and comply with such, so as to prevent any compromise of
governance of the City.
Operating Budget of the Corporate Legal Services Department
By the nature of its core business, the Department is not an income-generating Unit for the Metro and, therefore, its Operating Budget is primarily focused on the expenditure
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component. However, there is income generated in the form of sundry income derived from legal cost recoveries.
The expenditure component is comprised of various cost drivers i.e. general expenses, contracted services, compensation of employees, repairs and maintenance (external and internal) and Grants-in-Aid categories. The major drivers are compensation of employees and contracted service categories. The biggest single cost item is Contracts: Legal Services, in the contracted services category spent on legal fees for Contracted Attorneys from Council’s Panel in the defense of legal cases that proceed to Court by / against Council. Legal fees, unpredictable by their nature, significantly escalated during the past financial years and this has been identified as an area where the Department should continue developing and applying very stringent cost management mechanisms to reduce costs. One such key control mechanism is the two-pronged Due Diligence study first undertaken a year or so ago, to develop a CITY OF EKURHULENI Litigation Strategy, to highlight litigation triggers, generate management reports to analyse disputes, enable management of the performance of contracted Attorneys, critical appraisal of services rendered to client Departments and cooperation from client Departments, amongst others, is beginning to bring desired results i.e. contractual disputes and related litigation being drastically reduced
I. Development of a Case Management Framework which has been finalised used to manage litigious matters of the CITY OF EKURHULENI, submitted to the Senior Management Team for noting and, to be referred to the Corporate Services
& Finance Mayoral Cluster, for further noting after which it will be implemented.
II. The 2nd Phase currently underway is the identification of actual legal cases to be analysed and a survey to be conducted amongst the contracted Attorneys.
Focus is not only be on cutting costs but rather on getting value for money. The more applicable compliance legislation is promulgated; the more legal costs will go up due to stringent requirements for the municipality to comply with in ensuring compliance. The connotation is that balance should be struck between rendering quality and efficient legal advisory services and strictly managing costs.
Legal costs are monitored and referred for taxation when warranted and regular meetings are held in this regard. The Department has no influence on the Court roster as the scheduling of matters heard by the Court is a process completely controlled by the Courts, therefore, the duration of legal cases is based on the nature of legal cases and is not influenced in any way except that the Departmental Legal Advisors manage all aspects of the case to ensure that when a matter is set down to be heard, whatever that is within the control of the Department in preparation of the Court hearing, is strictly complied with to avoid unnecessary delays that may result in the matter being postponed.
Legal cases result directly from actions and/or a failure to act (omissions) by different CITY OF EKURHULENI client Departments. Corporate Legal Services continues to manage all aspects of litigation services until conclusion through external legal Practitioners on a contracted basis.
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Table 57 Operating Budget of the Corporate Legal Services Department