Question NW2592 to the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
26 November 2020 - NW2592
Graham, Ms SJ to ask the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
Whether she has put any measures in place to ensure that small, medium and micro enterprises contracted to participate in the Government’s construction and infrastructure projects are sufficiently skilled to ensure that quality is not compromised in pursuit of the targets set out in the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, Act 5 of 2000; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has programmes at various stages for small, medium and macro enterprises contracted to participate in the Government’s construction and infrastructure projects.
The Vuk’uphileLearnership Programme was launched in 2014 through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to promote economic growth and create sustainable development, for lower end Contractors with CIDB Grading 1 to 3. This programme is an Emerging Contractors Development Programme to build capacity to execute the increasing amount of labour-intensive work as part of the EPWP. The learner contractors in the programme receive training as part of the EPWP guidelines inorder to develop the learners on bidding and executing labour intensive projects, so that they are fully fledged contractors when they exit the programme.
Furthermore, the Department is planning to implement the Contractor Incubator Programme (CIP) targeting the development of emerging contractors between CIDB Grading 3 to 6. The purpose of the incubator programme therefore is to create an enabling environment within which selected existing contracting enterprises can develop into sustainable contracting enterprises. The programme is in the approval stages of the procurement strategy by the Department.