The Star
Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu
Durban – Frustrated government departments have been forced to set up their own “mini-public works departments” to implement infrastructure projects because the Department of Public Works is in a near-dysfunctional state.
Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin made this assessment on Wednesday during a parliamentary briefing on his department’s Eastern Cape school building programme. He said the department did not have capacity to manage the construction of schools, one of its key mandates.
Cronin told the public works oversight committee that the tendency of mini-departments of public works cropping up in various line departments like basic education could make the entire system “dysfunctional”.
He said the department’s biggest weakness was the construction of public infrastructure like clinics and schools.
“This is probably the area where we are most challenged and, as a result of that, what we’ve found is numbers of line departments have been inclined to try and set up mini-DPWs, and basic education might be one example of that,” said Cronin.
He said this was done “understandably out of frustration” with the performance of the Public Works Department, “because we’re unable to assist it with building or maintaining and taking responsibility for programme management in construction of schools”.
The committee chairwoman, Manana Catherine Mabuza, started the meeting by asking members what the department was doing to “reclaim its mandate”.
“I think that’s a very important question… There’s no founding legislation which establishes the department and indicates what its mandate and reach in scope should be. So that’s something we’re working on,” said Cronin.
The deputy minister said one of the department’s functions was to regulate and manage property and public buildings.
“The second leg of our mandate is still not properly legislated for, but our mandate would obviously be the property management of public buildings,” said Cronin.
He said attempts by the department to reclaim its responsibility should not be viewed as hostile and a competition between departments, “but needs a cabinet-wide discussion on how best we address this core function”.
Before Cronin’s remarks, his department’s deputy director-general for projects, Mfezeko Gwazube, briefed the committee on the Eastern Cape school building programme.
Gwazube said there was an agreement between Public Works and Basic Education in which they identified 64 schools for upgrade in the province.
Nationally, the Department of Public Works has identified 900 schools that were to be “beautified” across all nine provinces.
But the department also owes municipalities across the country close to R240m in outstanding rates and taxes.
The department previously admitted that the Nkandla scandal also highlighted major weaknesses, maladministration and corruption in its supply chain processes.
Political Bureau
