SPMA successfully hosts Annual International Conference

The conference consisted of six sessions, including the Emerging Researcher’s Forum, which gave young researchers the opportunity to showcase their work and elicit feedback for their self-development. Throughout the two days, delegates were also afforded an opportunity to interact with all presenters through dialogue.

The session on Professional Ethics was lively with fruitful and thought-provoking speakers and audience members. Central questions that emerged included “did you serve today?” which reflected on values and principles relating to work ethic, life and career skills; and “how do we change hearts and minds?”, which focused on ensuring greater equality. The topic of Social E-engineering received a lot of interest and focused on inclusiveness and social policies.

Another session theme was Local Government and Intergovernmental Relations. One of the presentations reflected on the effectiveness of the e-permit system using the City of Cape Town as a case study. The other speakers highlighted the significance of performance auditing as a mechanism for effective service delivery in municipalities. The session also discussed strategies put in place to achieve cooperative government objectives through intergovernmental relations forums in Kwa-Zulu Natal, thus giving a practitioner perspective on this issue. It further addressed issues relating to demarcation for democracy, ward delimitation and rationalisation of municipalities, as well as case studies on intergovernmental relations and the nexus between financial health, service delivery and human development in metropolitan municipalities. Research results from a team from the Human Sciences Research Council were debated and views from academics from Osun State University in Nigeria and the University of Pretoria, as well as a doctoral candidate from Unisa were shared.

The session under the sub-theme Capacity Building for a Developmental State was well attended with presenters from Walter Sisulu University, University of the Free State and UP. The attendees were afforded the opportunity to engage with each of the presenters.

The session on Public Financial Management and Administration reflected on the audit committee and internal audit units’ performance in the public sector in South Africa, as well as the spending patterns of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant and the effects of intergovernmental relations in the Mopani district municipality, Limpopo.

SPMA has received positive feedback from the delegates. Possible professional partnerships that have stemmed from the conference is with Prof Meine from Troy University and Prof Fernandez from Indiana University.

Power point prestentations

Administrative ethics and competing values in South Africa’s public administration: learning from the Ncholo Report and the Batho Pele principles (available on request)

Using a nation’s military services as a social engineering vehicle: ethical issues raised and lesson learned via the American experience

Mitigating the risk of fraud through governance and ethics (available on request)