SAP South Africa has announced its intent to engage with its ecosystem and local government with a view to assisting local government municipalities to simplify its functions and new regulatory processes, following the recently published Municipal Regulation on Standard Chart of Accounts Regulation (MSCOA) by the South African National Treasury. The new regulation aims to standardize all municipal processes across the country by providing a national standard framework for the recording and classification of municipal budget and financial information.To support municipalities and the business community transition swiftly from a technology perspective, in alignment with government, SAP South Africa is working closely with South African customers and partners in evaluating the impact of the legislation.
“SAP’s extensive public sector experience with local governments across the globe has shaped a unique SAP Urban Matters program that is focused on citizen-centric efficient cities,” comments Mehmood Khan, COO at SAP Africa. “SAP clearly has a keen understanding of local government municipalities and recognises they require more than just cutting edge technology to meet new regulations in today’s challenging economy. We look forward to working with government, our customers, our partners and you to enable this regulatory transition with the goal of making South African government even more efficient. We’ve already had initial workshops with the Metros to assess their understanding, preparation for MSCOA and their transition to the new regulation.”
The new regulation for municipalities involves a multi-dimensional framework designed to help municipal managers follow a prescribed method for diligently recording and classifying all local municipal financial transactions and information. According to the new regulations, there are minimum specifications for financial and related systems applications required before SCOA can be implemented. For many municipalities this has major technology implications, for example, the specifications of MSCOA indicate that the new system must operate on a web-based integrated platform and incorporate all key functions and processes of a municipality.
SAP South Africa is also in contact with the South African National Treasury about a detailed plan of action for the go-live of SCOA at municipalities by 1st July 2017, including readiness for the 2017/18 fiscal year budgeting cycle which is estimated to be complete by December 2016.