Question NW1240 to the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation
24 July 2020 - NW1240
Mey, Mr P to ask the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation
With reference to the recent contract of R600 million granted to the Rand Water Board by the Department of Basic Education to supply water and water tanks to 3 500 schools, (a) which subcontractors did the Board appoint to render the services in each province and (b) what (i) was the scope of the work of each subcontractor, (ii) were the amounts paid to each subcontractor for services rendered, (iii) was the total amount paid to consultants to advise on the project and (iv) monitoring and evaluation processes were put in place to monitor the specified contract, including the quality of the work and the value of the work done?
Reply:
With regard to the contract granted to the Rand Water Board by the Department of Basic Education to supply water and water tanks to 3 500 schools, the Rand Water Board has received R200 million to date from the Department of Basic Education. The details requested by the Honourable Member are provided in Annexure A attached.
In relation to monitoring and evaluation processes in place to monitor the specified contract, the following measures are in place to monitor the delivery of tankers and quality assure the standard of water delivered to schools:
(i) The Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) have representatives that verify and quality assure the work that has been done by sub-contractors;
(ii) Both Departments convene regular meetings to engage on project activities;
(iii) The sub-contractors sign for the work completed and the school representatives also sign for acceptance;
(iv) When defects are identified by DBE or the Rand Water Board representatives; the relevant contractors are called immediately to correct them as it is done in all other projects.
(v) In addition, the Rand Water Board has representatives in the provinces that verify that the tanks utilised to deliver water to the schools are in good condition before the tankers are deployed to site. The DWS representatives also verify the condition of the tankers before deployment to the schools.
(vi) Tankers that do not meet the basic requirements and do not have a disinfection certificate are not allowed to operate.
(vii) The water utilised for the schools are acquired from the nearest Water Service Authorities (WSA) which are all certified to provide potable water, guaranteeing the quality of water that is delivered to schools.