Question NW2138 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
07 July 2022 - NW2138
Horn, Mr W to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
(a) On what date did the Department of Justice last produce an uptodate (i) report on the state of all court buildings and (ii) assessment on the maintenance needs of each and every one of the buildings and (b) what is his plan to ensure that maintenance work, which falls outside the scope of day to day maintenance, is scheduled and undertaken in respect of each of the buildings in a timely manner?
Reply:
a) The Government Immovable Asset Management Act (GIAMA) No. 19 of 2007 requires each User of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD) to develop a User Asset Management Plan (UAMP). GIAMA entrenches a rigorous and planned approach to the provisioning of accommodation and maintenance requirements aligned to MTEF cycles. The UAMP is a systematic process which allows for the acquisition, refurbishment, maintenance and operation of immovable assets in a cost-effective manner. The UAMP is accompanied by a condition assessment report of all immovable assets. The condition assessment is valid for a period of five (5) years, and it further outlines the budget required to acquire new accommodation and maintain the existing assets. On an annual basis, the templates to the UAMP are updated and submitted to both the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) for implementation, and National Treasury for funding allocation. The DoJ&CD is due to commission a new UAMP in 2022/2023 that will be valid for the next five (5) years.
- In 2017, DoJ&CD commissioned a team of professional built environment consultants (engineers, architects and quantity surveyors) to develop the 2017/2018 UAMP. The Plan gives a state of each building and the cost required to maintain and keep the asset in habitable and acceptable standards to occupational health and safety.
- The UAMP has condition assessment report for each building which is captured in numerous templates and stipulate the maintenance needs and estimated costs.
b) The UAMP templates are submitted annually to the Custodian of government immovable assets, which is DPWI. A three (3) years planned maintenance plan is developed out of the UAMP, and this maintenance plan gets funded and executed by DPWI on behalf of the User. This is as per GIAMA. The projects are scheduled and prioritised according to their condition assessment ranking and the availability of budget. Through different forums (Ministerial meetings, Director-General’s meetings and Joint Task Team meetings), DPWI provide progress reports on each asset that has been prioritised for maintenance in that particular financial year. The Regional Offices of DoJ&CD assist with project management of these projects. Due to budget constraints and minimal technical capability within DPWI and DoJ&CD, some of the planned maintenance projects tend to lack behind and end up not being delivered in timeously. The Department is exploring different service delivery vehicles that will assist with the execution of planned maintenance backlog and not rely only on DPWI to execute the projects.
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