Head of Department
General Managers
Senior Managers
Members of the Executive Management
Colleagues from the Office of the Premier
Colleagues from the Provincial Treasury
Public Works Officials present here
Good morning.
The Department of Public Works remains a leader in the provision and management of provincial government land and buildings. This is the basis of our core mandate for us to be able to deliver on our four programmes namely Design and Construction, Property Management, Maintenance and Extended Public Works Programme. This will enable us as the department to utilise the resources at our disposal in the provision and management of provincial land and buildings and the coordination of the implementation of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
We are here once again, today and tomorrow, to review where we are going and what we are doing as the department. We are here to look at our weaknesses and challenges in terms of our core mandate. Allow me to first pass my gratitude to the Public Works staff members, under the stewardship of the Head of Department, Mr Madidimalo Chaamano, in terms of the efforts you continue to put in your respective duties to make this department what it is today. The past six months have not been easy on any of you, but you continued to live by our motto, Re A Šoma.
It is a known fact that Public Works, together with four other provincial departments has as of 05 December 2011 been placed under Section 100 (1) (B) of our constitution. Be that as it may, we still have a mandate to carry out, guided by the department’s vision, mission and values. For us to achieve these, we need to be guided by our strategic goals with which we will be able to measure our performance. Being under administration, we are hopeful that with the help of the Intervention Team we will eventually improve on our operations and enhance the capacity and improve on service delivery for our people.
The Department going forward
We are aware that the 17 Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs), covering a range of economic and social infrastructure, more emphasis is on the poorer provinces of the nine. Under Social Infrastructure, SIP 12 is about revitalisation of public hospitals and other health facilities; SIP 13 speaks about national school build programme.
The two are more directed at us as Public Works, working together with our client departments, Department of Health and Social Welfare and Department of Education. This year has been declared the year of massive infrastructure development drive. To us this means the compilation of Infrastructure Project Implementation Plans becomes an urgent matter as this will help the department to remain the best choice to provide leadership in Provincial Infrastructure Planning and Development.
This is also supported by the infrastructure investment programme as outlined in the Limpopo Economic Growth Development Plan which says in the period ahead government will continue with the infrastructure investment programme aimed at expanding and improving social and economic infrastructure to increase access, quality and reliability of public services and to support economic activities while also considering environmental sustainability and pursuing maximum employment impact.
The aim is to ensure sustained investment growth over the medium-term so as to achieve the target of a fixed investment ratio above 25% of GDP by 2014. Such projects will be spatially-referenced, planned for and implemented in an integrated manner. In addition, we will continue with programmes to provide and maintain health, education, library, sporting, recreation and other social infrastructure.
This speaks directly to the department’s strategic plan which over the next three years has made way for a renewed sense of enthusiasm and direction for the successful implementation and management of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in the province of Limpopo.
We are on the right track, with challenges here and there, challenges we believe we will overcome if we work together.
We are pleased with the way our province has performed in terms of creating work opportunities through EPWP, whereby we are at position 2 in the country. We are however concerned about the municipalities’ contribution towards the set work opportunities targets. We do hope that with the provincial EPWP Summit we are hosting this week on Thursday and Friday, we will come back with resolutions that will enable us to make the set targets in our Annual Performance Plan a reality.
Challenges
1. Asset Register
We will not stop talking about the Asset Register until we have been given thumbs up on it by the Auditor General. We will be audited henceforth on requirements of GIAMA when it comes to management of Immovable Assets, which is why we need to work harder to get the Asset Register right.
2. Performance Management
We need to understand our mandate and be able to implement as per our plans outlined in the Annual Performance Plans, thus being able to account to our people.
Word of encouragement
If we pay much more attention on the context of performance management and reporting as outlined by National Treasury, we will achieve the goals we set ourselves. This will translate into service delivery to our people. We need to stay reminded of our strategic objectives and objective statements as per our various programmes, and that way we will achieve the targets we have set ourselves.
In Conclusion
I would like to wish all of you the best with the task ahead of you, during the two-day period, and beyond in your respective workplaces. Let us continue to work harder for better results.
Thank you.
