Question NW1102 to the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
21 July 2020 - NW1102
Hicklin, Ms MB to ask the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
(1) What is her department doing to facilitate the recapitalisation of funds in her department; (2) how does her department (a) plan appropriately and (b) allocate budgets for renovations of current assets and/or the capitalisation of new projects without an accurate Immovable Asset Register; (3) what measures have been introduced to address the challenges of registration and transformation of the council since the oversight visit to the Council for the Built Environment in August 2019?
Reply:
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:
1. The Department receives its funding from National Treasury, and it is appropriated on an annual basis over the MTEF period, recapitalisation of funds (adding debt or equity) for a department is not allowed in terms of the PFMA. Any additional funds that the Department may require is requested from National Treasury through the budgetary process.
2(a) . Planning for projects is undertaken on all immovable assets on the IAR, allocated and utilised by User Departments.
(b) Budget allocation for renovations as well as capitalisation of new projects is also undertaken on immovable assets captured on the IAR, allocated and utilised by DPWI’s User Departments
The level of planning is being enhanced continuously through the immovable assets register enhancement programme in the recording of components of assets.
3. Since the Portfolio Committee oversight visit to the Gauteng Province in August 2019 the following initiatives have been undertaken by the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) to advance transformation of the built environment:
- Flowing from the outcomes of the Transformation Indaba that was held in October 2019, the CBE and DPWI have established the Transformation Collaborative Forums for professionals and other affected role players to engage on transformation matters including policy reviews.
- The CBE has held engagements with the Construction Education and Training Authority, as well as MerSETA to discuss funding of the skills pipeline.
- CBE met with the Department of Higher Education and Training to discuss collaboration on research and funding of the students in the field of built environment.