07 Aug 2013

 Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology (MIST) is unbundling some of the large projects into smaller packages for award to lower grade contractors.

Speaking at this year’s Construction Pitso, Minister Johnnie Swartz said that had been done in large scale on maintenance projects and to a limited extent for development projects as the ministry cdid not have any new mega projects.

They included Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School staff housing and Block 10 police staff housing projects. On one hand, Mr Swartz said MIST had adopted a four-year prolonged approach to address the issue of maintenance of completed facilities, which had been a challenge over the years.

He said buildings maintenance budget for all ministries, except the Ministry of Health, were consolidated into one budget under MIST while such development had facilitated effective planning and prioritisation of interventions. “The budget is also split between recurrent and development maintenance to facilitate rollover of expenditure into the next financial year in case of larger scope maintenance works under development budget,” said Mr Swartz.

Again, he said, the ministry was undertaking a consultancy project in collaboration with PEEPA which would inform a strategy and guide the process of participation by the private sector in facilities management of government’s building stock. He added that they would also be undertaking a condition survey of government facilities in this financial year using services of the private sector to augment internal resources.

Furthermore, he indicated that the idea was to facilitate forward planning and to prepare for the execution of rehabilitation works in the coming year. Meanwhile, the meeting brought together a wide spectrum of stakeholder across the construction industry and was co-hosted by ministries whose core responsibilities included among others, the delivery of infrastructure.

The ministries include MIST, Local Government and Rural Development, Minerals, Energy and Water Resources as well as Lands and Housing.  ENDS