Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members and guests; as a committee we have a mandate to call on the Department of Public Works to account for its work planned for a particular year. We thus provide an oversight function over the department and ensure that the needs of the poor are met.
For the department to be able to execute its mandate, it must have both human and financial resources. The approved staff establishment of the department is 6 283 posts, 4 935 posts are filled, and 1 348 posts are vacant. Madam, 641 vacant funded posts will be filled by the department. The department will therefore remain with 707 positions that are unfunded. The department has a plan in place to ensure that the vacant funded posts are filled. It has decreased the vacancy rate from 22% to 16%. Although this was insufficient, it was the right thing to do to strengthen internal controls and improve service delivery.
Section 77 of the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, gives the department the responsibility to appoint an audit committee which will operate according to PFMA and Treasury regulation terms of reference. There was an improvement in the appointments to the audit committee and the filling of a vacant position when a member of the audit committee resigned to ensure proper control and compliance.
The Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, is an important source of job creation. It is a critical imperative, given the extraordinarily high rate of unemployment that faces our people.
The Expanded Public Works Programme has appropriated R1,6 billion for the 2011-12 financial year period, compared to the R1,5 billion allocation during the last year. Expenditure on this programme is expected to increase over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period, MTEF period, reaching R2 billion by the 2013-14 financial year, to respond to the President's call for job creation.
The Expanded Public Works Programme underspent by 17% in the last financial year. We commend the commitment made by the Minister to ensure that the EPWP spends 100% of its budget for the benefit of poor people.
The Council for the Built Environment, CBE, was established to regulate the professions of the built environment, which are the professions of engineers, architects, surveyors and others. The Council for the Built Environment is supported to drive, support and advise on transformation within the built industry.
However, transformation is currently moving at a snail's pace, which is of huge concern. There is poor representation of black people, especially women. Registration bottlenecks are of critical concern. The industry currently employs 30% Africans, which includes 3% coloured, 7% Indian, and 20% black, while 70% are white. Of all employees, 88% are men, and 12% women.
For the CBE to execute its mandate it needs to be properly funded. In the 2009-10 financial year, the CBE was allocated R24,2 million. In the 2010-11 financial year, there was an increase of R1,3 million, and the funding amounted to R25,5 million. In the 2011-12 financial year, this amount will rise to R27,4 million for the CBE to provide strategic leadership to professional councils.
The Council for the Built Environment has tried its best to provide sound and prudent financial control to address the concerns raised by the Auditor- General in the 2009-10 financial year.
The Council for the Built Environment has planned to provide bursaries to 68 learners from previously disadvantaged communities who wish to pursue a career in the building industry. During the MTEF period, the number of students to be assisted will increase to 102 in 2012-13, and 153 in 2013- 14.
The Council for the Built Environment has 32 approved posts, of which 28 were filled, and 4 posts are vacant. The review of the CBE staff establishment will assist the organisation to evaluate its performance with the existing personnel and fill the vacant posts if necessary.
There is a lot that has been done by the CBE, but there is still more that needs to be done to address the inequities that were created by apartheid, and to ensure that the built environment is accessible to everyone, as "South Africa belongs to all who live in it", and not just to some!
Agrment South Africa, ASA, is the natural centre for the assessment and certification of nonstandardised buildings and construction products and systems.
In the 2009-10 financial year ASA was allocated R8,5 million, which has been increased by R428 000 in 2010-11, to R8,9 million. There will be a further increase of R449 000 in the 2011-12 financial year. Then the budget for ASA will be R9,349 million.
The budget will enable ASA to execute its mandate and continue to support the construction sector in order to facilitate the introduction of cost- effective, innovative technology and nonstandardised building systems within the context of government's new priorities and policies.
Agrment South Africa is expected to submit strategic and annual performance plans after they have been approved by the Minister, as per the prescripts of section 29(1). The plans must be specific, measurable, accurate, realistic, and time bound for the committee to be able monitor whether Agrment South Africa is able to implement its planned activities. It is also important for annual performance plans to be submitted in time for the committee to have enough time to deliberate on planned activities.
There is a lot of good work that ASA is doing, but there is still more to be done, especially in public participation - engaging people through their active participation in the development and operation of services that affect their lives. Especially those who are in the construction industry need to clearly understand the role of ASA.
The Independent Development Trust, IDT, is the agency of the department which is responsible for the development of infrastructure delivery. A lot of work has been done by the IDT through infrastructural development in creating jobs and reducing poverty in the previously disadvantaged areas. The 2010-30 vision of the IDT will go a long way in ensuring integrated and sustainable development, and ensuring that women contractors' skills are improved.
The Independent Development Trust has 390 positions, of which 380 are filled. There are 10 vacant positions to be filled in 2011-12 to ensure that the IDT has enough capacity to execute its mandate and contribute to the creation of decent and sustainable jobs. The Independent Development Trust will be allocated R150 million in 2011-12 to ensure that it is viable, although the decline in IDT revenue is a concern.
The Construction Industry Development Board, CIDB, was established by Act 38 of 2000 to regulate the construction industry and to provide strategic leadership to the industry stakeholders to stimulate growth reform and improve service delivery.
The Construction Industry Development Board budget has been increasing for the past two financial years. In the 2009-10 financial year it was R59,2 million, which increased by R4,3 million in the 2010-11 financial year. In the 2011-12 financial year there will be an increase of R2,3 million and the budget will amount to R65,9 million.
This amount will enable the institution to execute its mandate in developing a reliable and accurate national contractor programme; ensuring that the construction sites are healthy, safe and environmentally friendly; and further enhancing infrastructure delivery skill. Small and medium enterprises, SMEs, play a major role in the economic growth of the country and in job creation. Therefore, they need to be fully supported that they may be able to grow and expand their businesses.
However, if they are not paid on time, their businesses will close down, there will be a high number of unemployed people, and the transformation agenda in the business industry will be a dream. Therefore, it is necessary for government departments and the private sector to pay the small, micro and medium enterprises, SMMEs, on time. We hope that the Re Ya Patala [We Pay] initiative launched by the department will address the delay in the payment of SMMEs.
There are a lot of good things that the department has done, such as: the improvement made in order to move from qualified opinions to unqualified opinions in 2008, and I think it needs to sustain that; the improvement in the spending trend, which was above 90%; the training of staff and assisting of learners who come from previously disadvantaged areas with bursaries, although still more needs to be done to address the skills shortages; improving the lives of rural people by building bridges and schools through working in partnership with the Departments of Basic Education and of Defence and Military Veterans; creating jobs through the EPWP to change the lives of poor people; disciplinary action taken against officials found guilty of misconduct in order to eradicate fraud and corruption; the ability to decrease the vacancy rate, although there is still more to be done; the ability to implement the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, resolutions in order to ensure sound and prudent financial management; having proper information systems to facilitate the preparation of financial statements; the ability to submit financial statements for audit in previous years as per section 40 of the PFMA; and the increase of the total number of municipalities reporting on the EPWP from the 2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10 financial years.
While the department is doing well, there are also challenges that need to be considered and attended to, such as the lack of compliance with financial governance standards, that is underspending, virements, and wasteful, fruitless and unauthorised expenditure; underspending in some programmes, especially the EPWP; the incomplete asset register for immovable assets; insufficient resources for employee wellness programmes, which results in a high cost of sick leave; the weak monitoring and evaluation unit; late transfers to entities, which impacts on their operation; delay in the submission of information or documents, so that they are not on time; and the delay in the payment of service providers.
Challenges do not mean that the department is failing; they are indications that there are gaps to be filled to ensure effective, efficient and sustainable service delivery.
In conclusion, according to research done by the SA Institute of Race Relations, there has been a lot of criticism of the government for failing to provide communities with basic services. However, figures from the latest South African surveys show that more South Africans have access to basic services, meaning that changes have been made by the ANC government to improve the lives of our citizens. [Interjections.] People can scream, but the ANC is the only organisation that can improve the lives of South African citizens. The ANC lives! The ANC leads! The ANC forever! I support the Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]