Question NW2719 to the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans

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30 November 2017 - NW2719

Profile picture: Marais, Mr S

Marais, Mr S to ask the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans

(1)How many maintenance contracts does her department currently have in place for the maintenance and servicing of aircraft; (2) (a) how many maintenance contracts for the maintenance and servicing of aircraft (i) expired and (ii) were not re-advertised (aa) in the (aaa) 2015-16 and (bbb) 2016-17 financial years and (bb) since 1 April 2017, (b) what is the basis upon which it was decided not to re-advertise and (c) which aircrafts are affected in each case; (3) will any contract expiring in the 2017-18 financial year be re-advertised; if not, (a) what are the reasons for this decision and (b) which aircrafts are affected?

Reply:

1. The SAAF has 16 aircraft in service of which each aircraft can have one or more support contracts depending on SAAF capability, support concept and funding source. There are contracts for aircraft support, engine support, avionic suite support, material supply, ground equipment support, training equipment support, infrastructure support, etc. At present the department has maintenance contracts in place for 12 aircraft.

2. (aaa) No contracts expired and were not advertised in the 2015/16 year.

(bbb) one maintenance contract expired during the 2016/17 financial year.

(bb) 4 maintenance contracts expired since 1 April 2017 and which were not re-advertised

(b) Armscor can only advertise tenders for new contracts when it receives a valid instruction from the DOD. No valid instruction for the advertisement of these 5 aircraft are currently in the possession of Armscor.

(c) The aircraft for which the maintenance contracts have expired since 1 April 2017 and for which the contracts have not been advertised are the following :

- Cessna Citation

- Beechcraft King Air

- Cessna Caravan

- Boeing Business Jet

- Dassault Falcon 50 and Falcon 100

3. Armscor will only re-advertise contracts that will be expiring in the 2017/18 financial year once it is in receipt of valid instructions from the DOD. To date, Armscor has not received any new instructions for the advertisement of maintenance contracts that will be expiring.

Currently the SAAF is undertaking a review of its internal capabilities where an audit of Air Servicing Units (ASU) and squadrons is undertaken to determine what work can be outsourced and can be performed in-house by the SAAF.

At the request of the SAAF, Armscor is also undertaking a review of all SAAF maintenance contracts to ensure that best value for money contracting is undertaken. In this regard, there will be different tenders that are going to be advertised such as ones for material supply, consolidation of different contracts, contracting directly with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) or maintenance and repair organisations (MRO), etc. There will also be new tenders that will be advertised that will ensure that the SAAF internal capabilities are enhanced.

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