THE government wants to curb the astronomical pay of municipal managers by introducing regulations that determine the salaries of municipal bosses according to the size and budgets of the municipalities they run.

This is according to Deputy Cooperative Governance Minister Yunus Carrim, who was speaking at a governance and administration cluster briefing in Cape Town yesterday.

He said the national government would use the new Municipal Systems Amendment Act to draw up and publish guidelines in this regard.

"We are, through this law, setting ceilings for remuneration and conditions of service for municipal managers," he said.

Carrim warned, however, that the national government could not legally prescribe exact salary amounts but could only set guidelines that municipalities must follow in determining how much to pay municipal managers.

"It is unconstitutional for us as at national level, for the minister or the provinces, to prescribe an exact amount for the remuneration of a municipal manager. Local government is a sphere; they have contracts for municipal managers determined by performance agreements.

"What we are seeking are guidelines that will, say, depend on the number of residents in your municipality and the budget you have."