“Mayors Promise To Adjust Their Functioning To Meet Expectations”

What was so particular about the 2023 Annual Report of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator for the North West Region that you set out to tell the Regional and Council Authorities during the debriefing workshop of April 3, 2024?
The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator of the North-West Region conducted an annual survey to measure the perception of citizens in 2023 of the functioning of regional and council services. The 2023 Annual Report was submitted to the President of the Republic on February 8, 2024. The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator exploited relevant complaints and the avalanche of denunciations brought to our office daily by users of regional and council services. We also recruited volunteer Community-Based Assistants as partners who administered 7,842 questionnaires in all council areas to give us information that enabled us ascertain the functioning of regional and council services in the North-West Region in 2023. The returns of the administered questionnaires were analysed and interpreted.
Observing the functioning of councils, we found out that council executives are often not in touch with their populations, hence, they are not aware of how the population perceives them and their service delivery. This was revealed in the perception survey in which many respondents declared that they hardly see their mayors, some of them still operating out of their council areas. In general terms, the survey findings were not good in many respects leaving the general impression that councils in their majority have not been living up to the expectation of their citizens regarding the fulfilment of their missions.

The perception survey on their stewardship, services and management was key in the debriefing workshop.  What did you tell them concerning the findings of the survey?
Given the overall poor ratings many councils received from their population, and as part of my missions to enhance the effectiveness of councils, I told members of the Regional Executive Council and Mayors that:  Some of them are perceived to be running the councils as their private estates to the exclusion of other stakeholders; part of the population is not receiving enough of their attention given the unavailability of some mayors in their municipalities. The population wants to see, feel and work with them; a good portion of the population does not support them because they (population) are not considered valued and are not normally informed of what their council is doing, in most cases; and that a good part of the perception of some of their dismal performances are largely due to the feelings of frustrations of their collaborators, councillors as well as workers. 

How did Regional Council Executive and the mayors, especially ...