National Assembly Cape Town: 29 March 2007  

Madame Speaker,

One of the challenges that our government departments are faced with is service delivery. By striving to achieve its objectives and to fulfil its mission, the Department of Public Works can play an important role in facilitating the delivery of other departments and in so doing, assist them to reach their respective goals and provide a better service to all.

The bill before us today will hopefully play an important role in this regard and assist the Department of Public Works to reach its objectives more efficiently and effectively.

The state of immovable assets has a direct bearing on the ability of government departments to fulfil their mandates and perform their functions optimally. If they are in a state of disrepair and are dilapidated then that would impair the ability of the departments to deliver an adequate service.  It is for this reason that the management of government's immovable assets are so important.

This Bill provides for the efficient use of immovable assets; it also states that they be kept operational to function in a manner that supports efficient service delivery. In order to use immovable assets efficiently so as to achieve a high level of service delivery, there must be some sort of uniformity in procedure when dealing with issues regarding these assets as well as knowledge about the current state of repair or disrepair that these assets are in. Regular maintenance of immovable assets and their ability to support efficient service delivery must also be constantly monitored and evaluated. We are therefore pleased that the Bill provides for these.

A central aspect of this Bill is the immovable asset management plan which includes, amongst other things, a performance assessment of the immovable assets as well as the maintenance activities required. These plans are central to the assets efficient functioning and ultimately to a higher level of service delivery. They will also lead to a more efficient allocation of the Department's funds.

During the public hearings, concern was raised regarding the Department's capacity to deliver the objectives of the Bill. We, in the IFP, believe that this is a valid point that should be closely monitored especially during the implementation of certain aspects of the Bill as this will ultimately determine whether the objectives are reached or not.

The IFP supports this Bill.

I thank you.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mr Bonginkosi Dhlamini MP: 083 254 8576
Noleen Hendricks: 082 886 9848