The evaluation covered the period from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2007. It was undertaken in the national and provincial departments of Public Works and Housing. The decision to focus on the departments of Public Works and Housing was taken due to the nature of their operations, which involves a large degree of outsourcing to service providers. The evaluation focussed on the Supply Chain Management (SCM) practices of these departments under the R200 000 threshold.