Council for the Built Environment on its 2012 Annual Performance Plan

Meeting report

The Chairperson reminded the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) of four issues which had been unresolved when it had last met with the Committee in October. These were recognition of prior learning, two professional councils which had not signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), delays in dealing with cases, and accreditation of courses offered by universities and technikons which were not yet accredited. She hoped these would be dealt with during the presentation.

Dr Mpoti Ralephata, Acting CEO of the CBE, said the CBE was in its 12^th year of existence, and had now reached the stage where it needed to optimise its performance. This would involve focussing on three key areas – achieving compliance with the CBE Act (which was the very reason for its existence), advocating transformation in the built environment, and providing leadership in skills development.

Each of the professional councils had been established under its own Act, and had its own governance framework. Up to now, their policy planning and reporting processes had run more or less independently of one another. Agreement had been reached that there needed to be an alignment of the planning cycles, and this should be achieved by the end of the performance period.

One of the CBE’s priorities was to establish a structured candidacy programme to address bottlenecks in the skills pipeline. Conventional wisdom indicated the solution was to offer more people the opportunity to study at tertiary institutions so that they could obtain qualifications for the built environment. On its own, however, this approach was not adequate. A problem arose after students had graduated and were put on candidacy programmes – some either took very long, or did not complete the programmes. This meant there were many “stranded graduates” who were unable to register and practise as professionals. The CBE was working on the design of a candidacy programme which it would roll out, in conjunction with the professional councils, to address this challenge.

Dr Ralephata said the Council was executing its mandate well in the areas of human resource development, the uniform application of norms and standards, and the maintenance of a sustainable built environment. However, he pointed out several matters which had not been dealt with satisfactorily. In the public protection area, the CBE’s appeals process was not meeting the requirement of the Act that cases should be concluded within 60 days. On health and safety issues, preliminary research had been conducted and a report produced, but nothing had been done beyond that, and a policy document was needed to take it to the next level. The Identification of Work (IDoW), as required by the Act, had not been completed, although the project had been ongoing for seven years.

The work of the CBE was divided into four programmes, covering administration, the Built Environment Academy, the Centre for Innovation and Integrated Planning, and areas of public interest.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Zambia was almost completed and, once signed, the CBE would see how it could be extended to other South African Development Community (SADC) countries to ensure there was mutual acceptance of professions and comparable standards in the region.

Dr Ralephata said five of the six professional councils had submitted their IDoW policies, the exception being the Engineering Council (ECSA), which had submitted a policy, but it had not been accepted by the CBE committee. So far, the differences between ECSA and the CBE had not been reconciled. Even if a compromise policy were developed, there was no guarantee it would be acceptable to both parties. ECSA represented more than 50% of the professionals in the built environment, and the CBE had explored various avenues to break the deadlock.

The delay in the handling of appeals was a matter of serious concern. It appeared that when matters were referred to the CBE, the process which had been followed in the professional councils did not provide the required information. This resulted in time-consuming referrals back to the councils, and was an inconvenience to the appellant. As a result, the CBE had budgeted for a diagnostic investigation into why it could not meet the 60-day deadline, and with the aid of its legal resources, it would develop a code of good practice for appeals hearings. This would be circulated to all the professional councils.

The Chairperson interrupted to express her concern that the CBE appeared to be making no progress in resolving the challenges it had identified. She wanted to know what the Council was doing about helping graduates to obtain recognition, as parents were wasting hard-earned money to send their children to university, only to have them stand around without employment when they graduated. She also criticised the fact that the appeals problem was dragging on. The CBE needed to sit down with the councils and resolve these issues, and also take steps to ensure courses at tertiary institutions were recognised.

Dr Ralephata said that if the CBE could correct the issues which had been raised, it would justify its existence. He conceded, however, that it was embarrassing to realise that in its 12^th year, the organisation was still putting forward plans for the future, rather than talking about continuous improvements.

All the professional councils had their accreditation processes in place, but the criteria for admission to the different professions were not uniform – in some instances, there were written exams, in others there were oral exams or case studies. The CBE was investigating why these differences existed.

The major event involving the Centre for Innovation was the Built Environment Indaba, which would take place by November.

Ms Maphefo Sedite, Chief Financial Officer, said there had been only a minimal increase in the CBE’s grant allocation, which was R27,4 million for the current year. She illustrated graphically that if the grant had been increased in line with the consumer price index since 2008-09, it should be R10 million greater. This under-funding was resulting in an increased proportion of the budget being allocated to fixed costs, at the expense of programme expenditures.

Dr Ralephata commented that these financial constraints were having a negative impact on the Council’s ability to deal with the accreditation of institutions, and to enforce the implementation of its policies in the field. Another factor hindering the CBE’s performance was poorly defined transformation objectives. It was agreed that there was a need to broaden representitivity within all the professions, and there were several “levers” which the Council could pull to achieve this. Beyond this, however, the professional capacity of the public service needed to be expanded, as most government projects relied on the use of consulting firms, and this generally did not result in labour-intensive technologies being implemented. The footprint of professional services also needed to be expanded into the rural areas, as most of the expertise was restricted to the urban centres.

Mr Lucas Zepe, Chief Operations Officer, said that when the Engineering Council signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on 4 May, five of the six professional councils would have signed, the only one outstanding being the architects’ council. The CBE was actively pursuing this matter.

The process of accreditation was proceeding well, but there were some “fly-by-night” institutions which were offering courses which were not accredited, resulting in students receiving certificates which no professional body would recognise. This was criminal matter.

Ms Portia Tau-Sekati, CBE Chairperson, said two approaches could be taken to deal with the appeals delay problem. One would be to seek to extend the current 60-day deadline, but the councils would be engaged to see whether they could work together to settle appeals within the deadline.

One of the big challenges facing the organisation was the lack of funding, with 90% of the budget being consumed by fixed costs, and only 10% being available for programmes.

Discussion
Ms A Dreyer (DA) said that as the biggest portion of the budget was spent on office accommodation, equipment and staff, and very little on output, it seemed as if the CBE existed for its own sake. She asked why the CBE was trying to standardise the professional councils, as they were all independent and applied their own standards to protect the reputation of their professions.

Ms N Ngcengwane (ANC) expressed concern over the “stranded graduate” problem, and asked the CBE to explain what needed to be done to resolve it. She said the bottlenecks preventing graduates from practising as professionals needed to be eliminated.

Mr M Swathe (DA) wanted to know whether the CBE interacted with those tertiary institutions whose courses were not recognised, and also with the professional councils themselves, to establish why they did not recognise certain courses. He also expressed concern that the IDoW was still uncompleted after seven years.

Ms P Ngwenya-Mabila (ANC) asked what the CBE was going to do with the “fly-by-night” institutions it had identified. She was also interested to learn whether the planned indaba was intended to help the Council to iron out the challenges it faced.

Ms N November (ANC) said there had been considerable coverage on television about “fly-by-night” institutions, and yet the CBE had remained quiet on the issue. She urged the Council to be more active in this regard. It was really worrying to learn that after 12 years, the CBE had no modern software and was lagging from a technological point of view.

Ms Dreyer said she wanted clarification on the “stranded graduates” issue. Was it because the council, “for some strange reason,” accepted some people but rejected others, or was it because the graduates had studied at sub-standard, illegal or non-accredited institutions.

The Chairperson expressed the view that this was a “white man’s world,” and although they had been told they had reached an age where they should go on pension, they did not want to move and allow energetic young men and women to take over. This was a problem at a time when one needed to be preparing for the future.

Ms Tau-Sekati said it was difficult to balance the interests of the Council with those of the public. If there were instances where it took 17 years to become registered with the Council, the idea of regulating the professional councils without any interference needed to be looked at. The deficiency of the Act was that it focussed on facilitation and promotion, but did not provide the teeth to enable the CBE to regulate the councils. The councils could respond to requests for information or action by saying they reported to the Department of Public Works, and therefore did not have to respond to the CBE. The councils remained autonomous, and the current Act did not give the CBE much authority.

Dr Ralephata rejected the notion that the Council existed “for its own sake.” The Act required a large amount of advocacy and promotional work, and although there were only two or three issues where the CBE had an enforcement role, this was due to the way the Act was framed, and this might need to be addressed by the legislature.

He said the CBE was required to regulate the affairs of the professional councils in terms of the Act, and the role of officials was to implement the Act as it stood. It could be argued, however, that the CBE needed to look at issues such as transformation within the councils, and the closing of the urban-rural divide.

To overcome the challenges posed by the “stranded students,” the CBE intended to study the structure of candidacy programmes. He pointed out that for a candidate to become a professional, there were usually four parties involved – the graduate, a mentor, the employer and the professional council or CBE. Problems arose when there was no committed mentor, for instance, or when the graduate was unable to find employment. The problem could be resolved only if all four parties pulled together on the issue, and the CBE believed it could facilitate this process as part of its advocacy role.

The problem of unregistered institutions was getting worse and worse. In this instance, it was the responsibility of the Department of Higher Education, although the CBE could advise the Department on which institutions were presenting courses which it had accredited, and this information could be transmitted through career guidance programmes at schools.

Dr Ralepatha said the reason for the IDoW project being incomplete after seven years was due to the structure of the CBE. This was because 12 of the 20 Council members were drawn from the professions, and if an unpopular view affecting one of the professional councils was put forward, it would be turned down. This resulted in matters being referred backwards and forwards and “going round in circles”, and remaining unresolved.

He said the staging of the indaba had been delayed, but the new Minister of Public Works had given a commitment for it to be held in November.

As far as the CBE’s lack of modern software was concerned, the CBE itself needed to find ways to resolve this issue.

He said he would advise the two councils which had not yet signed the MOAs that it was an instruction from the Committee that they should sign them by June, failing which they would have to provide an explanation to the Committee.

He agreed with the Chairperson’s assertion that it was “a man’s world.” A CBE study had shown two trends – small firms were being swallowed up by large firms, and the age profile for members of the professional councils was over 50. Something needed to be done, as the population was getting younger, and if the age profile continued to rise, it would impact on the quality of projects.

The Chairperson said the Committee would liaise with the Department of Public Works to ensure the MOAs were signed by June. She also insisted that the indaba should be held earlier than November, as there were too many important issues to be dealt with to wait until then.

Ms Ngcengwane suggested that the CBE should go to the schools to advise children on the built environment professions. She was supported by Ms November, who proposed that rural schools should be given priority.

The Chairperson said the Committee would ask the Minister to look into the CBE Act, as well as check into the Acts governing the six professional councils, as the fact that they had equal powers meant the CBE did not have the power to enforce its regulations.

The meeting was closed.