Question NW3479 to the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
14 October 2022 - NW3479
Zondo, Mr S S to ask the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
Whether her department has any plans to ensure that the infrastructure of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) is (a) refurbished and (b) maintained; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details; a. What amount has her department spent on refurbishing the SANDF buildings in the past 2 years?
Reply:
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
1. I am informed the immovable infrastructure maintenance approach in the Department of Public and Infrastructure (DPWI) is a blend of Preventative and Corrective. It is per the National Immovable Asset Maintenance Management (NIAMM) Framework, and facilities refurbishment and repair fall under Corrective maintenance.
a) Under Corrective maintenance, two asset renewal programmes ensure the upkeep of DoD facilities. These are Repair and Refurbishment (R&R) and Capital programmes. DPWI always has a myriad of repair and upgrade projects being carried out on the DoD portfolio. The current challenge is the decentralised budget that resides with the client. This model has bottlenecks that lead to delays in timeously carrying out refurbishment and capital projects due to unavailability or delay in funding confirmation.
Furthermore, in recent times DoD has prohibited DPWI from carrying out any Repair and Refurbishment projects in their facilities. The current DoD portfolio is relatively old, and the current prohibition of refurbishment by the DoD will accelerate the deterioration of the facilities resulting in a burden on the normal preventative and corrective maintenance budget. This could put the accounting officer in a precarious position if something were to go wrong due to the lack of refurbishment on these facilities.
b) DPWI continue to carry out Corrective (Day-to-Day) maintenance through various DPWI regional offices. Furthermore, there is an R1 million delegation assigned to the client to perform corrective maintenance as per the Day-to-Day guidelines. The department has already implemented the Total Facility Management (TFM) approach at one of the DoD key strategy facilities, 1 Military Hospital. The TFM implementation for 2 Military Hospital is imminent, and the site visit comprised of DPWI, management of 2 Military Hospital and potential service providers took place on 04 October 2022. TFM is a maintenance approach where the facilities' services are packaged by combining technical maintenance and soft services.
2. Refurbishment expenditure for the past two years on DoD facilities.
|
Maintenance |
Repair |
Refurbishment |
DoD funded Refurbishment |
|
|
2019/20 |
473 329 770 |
94 966 731 |
20 056 739 |
R 463 066 106 |
|
2020/21 |
342 495 058 |
80 322 416 |
5 676 461 |
R 320 936 571 |
DoD has another Refurbishment budget over and above its normal Capital budget, and DPWI also executes the projects on a recoverable basis.