This emerged at an engagement the department held with established contractors in East London yesterday. The Department of Human Settlements is currently implementing plans to ensure it reaches its human settlements delivery targets for the current financial year
“As a department we are on track to deliver the18 900 units but also on track with our expenditure,” said Gaster Sharpely, the Head of Department. In this current financial year, 2013/14, the department is targeting to build 18 900 houses with access to basic services such as water and sanitation.
The aim of the session was to resolve some of the challenges hampering the service delivery of human settlements in the province.The session also discussed new strategies from supply chain of up scaling the delivery of human settlements.
On the challenge of non-performance by contractors, the department has terminated their contracts and has blacklisted them. “We want to increase the number of performing contractors we want people who know construction and not just know how to fill in tender forms,” added Sharpley. The department also has a system of vetting which is the verification of those contractors on the database.
