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| 2008/09 Budget and Policy Speech delivered by the MEC for Public Works, Madala Masuku
Mpumalanga Legislature, Nelspruit From the outset, I would like to join my colleagues and community leaders in voicing my abhorrence of the barbaric attacks launched against members of foreign nationals in the past weeks. We all grew up under conditions of extreme poverty, but we never resorted to crime to ward off those depressing circumstances. Undoubtedly, we do acknowledge that petty and social crime has a direct connection to poverty, but people exposed to abject poverty are not bloodthirsty. There can be no justification for the attacks meted out against our African brothers and sisters. Let us all inculcate the spirit of being neighbourly in all our communities. Maybe we should draw lessons from Yann Martel in his book “Life of Pi” in which this question was asked: “Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they have known for a great unknown beyond the horizon? Why climb this Mount Everest of formalities that makes you feel like a beggar? Why enter this jungle of foreignness where everything is new, strange and difficult?” The author concluded that the answer is the same the world over: “People move in the hope of a better life…” People move, because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work, their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that the future is blocked, that they might do well but that it would not be the same for their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else.” Martel went further to say that “To prosper, even a zoo needs parliamentary government, democratic elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, rules of law and everything else enshrined in …constitution. ..Otherwise, bad politics is bad for business…” (Martel, 2001 pp. 77 & 79) Indeed, this constitutes a mirror image of the lives of some of our brothers and sisters from all over Africa and the Diaspora. South Africa is no island and is not immune from this. It has happened to us and is still happening. South Africans are not insulated in South Africa, they are found in every corner of the world in search of what they believe is better life, because that is precisely how we defined what constitutes total freedom in South Africa: To live wherever we choose, to have freedom of movement and to be at peace with the world. Madam Speaker, I preface my speech in this way to remind ourselves of the commitment we made when we prayed during our struggle days: We said this because, since time immemorial, South Africa had attracted, accommodated, employed and fed many people who were not necessarily of its own origin. Even after our democracy, we prayed for this Africa that must be blessed, including a South Africa which is part of this continent. We called for the blessing of the land of its own clear blue skies and deep blue seas, the beautiful landscapes of fauna and flora that balance our existence, sounding a call to come together and unite so that we can stand and face real challenges. It is a caution to us that this “Freedom” we are talking about does not come on a platter, but is a product of strife and sacrifice that requires all of us to commit to improve the quality of our lives. No short cuts. So as we live today, we must be reminded that our country’s wealth has been shaped by many people of the world – all the six continents put together. Sometimes out of love for the country and its people, sometimes out of strife. We all have to commit ourselves, shoulder to the wheel, to make democracy work for us in a manner that will realize the goal for a better life for all. The Freedom Charter calls for people to govern, to be allowed to take part in the administration of the country. To be allowed to have equal rights, where they are given equal status in bodies of the State, courts and in schools. To have rights to ply trades, crafts and professions, to have a police force and army that shall be open to all and that are the helpers and protectors of the people. To enjoy equal human rights and live where you wish to in a country where there is work and security. A country where the doors of learning and culture have been flung open to encourage all national talent to enhance our cultural life through an exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands. To allow an education that shall teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace. A country where teachers shall have equal rights, commensurate with other citizens. A country where there shall be houses, security and comfort, with medical care provided for all and special attention paid to mothers and young children. A country where slums shall be demolished and new suburbs built, where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and a social centre. Where the aged, orphans, persons with disability and the sick shall be cared for by the State. A community where rest, leisure and recreation shall be the right of all. The implementation of our programmes is informed by the knowledge that we are an enabling department that provides infrastructure and assist in its maintenance. That we do this while taking into account the need to build the capacity of the country in order to cope with the challenge of delivering this much needed infrastructure. The Reconstruction and Development Programme instructs that “The infrastructural programme must ensure an integrated approach to the provision of various services so that we are able to upgrade our infrastructure in a manner that both meets basic needs and enhances new and effective economic activity. This is particularly true in areas of information technology. Upgrading in these areas can facilitate an upgrading of education, health care, recreation and other services, by improving the quality of information available and providing communities through out the country with access expertise and usable data.” We have all spoken about the challenges in health and social development and welfare and we have spoken also about challenges in education, culture, sports and recreation and have beaten ourselves regarding our delivery of the above. The reality of the situation is that without appropriate and quality infrastructure, the ability to meet service delivery challenges is seriously compromised. When we presented our policy and budget speech on the 07th June 2007, we spoke of the journey we started in 2004, a challenging journey that required the exchange of more than one pair of hands to get the vehicle moving. Today, I stand before you on the last lap of one part of a relay race, convinced that our vision and mission regarding this journey remain firmly rooted and informed by the contract we entered into with our people. However, as we near the end of the third term of office of this government, it is also time for us to take a step back to assess the impact that our work had in honouring the people’s contract of creating a better life for all. In some cases, it has given us an opportunity to put strategies in place to ensure that the gains we have made in the past 14 years are not lost, but become the firm foundation on which we will build tomorrow. This assessment has made us realize the immenseness of the work we are expected to deliver on, which require well-thought and focused execution mechanisms, not just hasty and nice-to-hear plans. The year 2008/2009 will indeed be a year where our business will be unusually intensive and focused to ensure that services are timeously delivered. Great strides have been made in moving ahead to construct the new face of South Africa’s infrastructure and property industry, using this government portfolio. Infrastructure Education infrastructure For 2007/2008 we braced ourselves to deliver 100% of the planned education infrastructure, (and at a minimum 80%), barring the challenges we anticipated if we did not manage to attract the planned necessary capacity on the budgeted 188 education projects, worth R400 million. We also aimed to clear all uncompleted and unclosed projects by the end of the financial year. However, this proved to be somewhat of a moving target during the course of the year. Firstly, the Education project list was reviewed from 188 to just 134 projects. An additional 34 projects were included for implementation, bringing the total of education infrastructure projects to 168. By the end of 2007/08 the Department of Public Works had processed certificates accounting for 76% of the budgeted education infrastructure budget. However, as members would have heard in MEC Coleman’s Budget vote speech, only 49% passed the pay point. This accounts for weaknesses discovered with regard to process flows in the payment systems on the side of both Public Works and the Department of Education. In the next financial year, the Department will be implementing school projects with a budget of R418 million. As indicated in the budget and policy speech by the Honourable MEC for Education, MEC Coleman, in conjunction with her Department all mud schools and other unsuitable structures will also be eradicated over the MTEF period. In this regard, we will be working closely with the IDT, to boost the capacity of Public Works to implement this infrastructure. Health Infrastructure The initial infrastructure plan for 2007/08 had 32 health infrastructure projects to be implemented to the value of R155 million. This was later increased to 54 projects. Payments for up to 50% of the health infrastructure budget were processed and submitted to the client department for payment. The initial plan was to construct eight social services offices. During the development of the implementation plans, we overlooked featuring of the consultation process in the plan, which is a necessity for all new standard designs. This accounted for the delay in meeting the target we set ourselves to achieve in the year. We have learnt our lesson and this year, we have developed improvement strategies that will result in projects implemented on time, within budget while meeting the required service standards. Furthermore, we have improved our planning processes by joint planning right from project conceptualisation up to delivery. One of the major achievements in the delivery of public health infrastructure in the 2007/08 financial year was the completion of the Middelburg Pharmaceutical Depot. This facility, once commissioned, will provide the province with its first state-of-the-art depot from where pharmaceutical supplies will be distributed to other health facilities. On this particular project, it needs to be mentioned that the project was completed ahead of schedule, mainly due to the improved project supervision and expertise of the contractor involved. In addition, four offices were completed for Social Services at Umjindi, Tonga, Shongwe and Ermelo, a maternity ward was completed at Sabie Hospital and medical residences built at Piet Retief Hospital. In 2008/09, we will continue to assist the Department of Health and Social Services with implementation of infrastructure projects. In order to comply with 2010 requirements, Public Works will assist Health to construct emergency medical service stations and upgrade Witbank, Rob Ferreira and Themba hospitals. Forensic pathology service facilities are currently being constructed at Ermelo and Evander and, despite delays due to an absence of suitable contractors; they will be completed in this financial year. Other infrastructure projects The department also continued to facilitate and supervise the delivery of building infrastructure by other departments. Contractors for both the Provincial Archive (a project of the Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation) and the Disaster Management Centre (a project of the Department of Local Government and Housing) have been appointed and the department will continue with the implementation of these projects in the 2008/2009 financial year. On behalf of the Office of the Premier, the Department of Public Works will continue with the conversion of Mapulaneng College into a fully-fledged management development centre for the province. The provision of a Traffic Training Academy for the Department of Roads and Transport will also receive our attention in this financial year. Some of the glaring challenges that continued to haunt the delivery of infrastructure have been poor workmanship and slow progress on infrastructure projects by some contractors and consultants, mainly due to inadequate supervision and monitoring. Because of this, the majority of outstanding projects were completed, but not closed. However, in the past year we have improved drastically on our capacity to monitor the quality of our projects by employing qualified project coordinators who are assigned to specific consultants and contractors. They have assisted greatly to proactively identify shortcomings in the construction process. As we increase our technical capacity in this financial year, we hope to further improve on project supervision. The draft quality management plan, once finalized will assist in the close monitoring of quality delivery targets. Furthermore, the MEC and the departmental management spent time visiting projects construction sites to validate the quality of work being done and listen to challenges that contractors are facing when delivering Infrastructure. I must indicate that this approach has been an eye opener in that it allowed the Department to have a broad understanding of the challenges facing aspiring entrepreneurs in the built environment. It also painted a clear picture about consultants who are dedicated and committed to assist government in delivering first world quality infrastructure and those who connive with contractors in order to rob government of its meager resources. The Department of Public Works Intergovernmental forum endorsed the recruitment of 267 built environment professionals from Cuba, to be deployed nationwide. Let me pause, Madam Speaker, to welcome in this House eleven Cuban professionals, who include architects, civil, mechanical, hydraulic and electrical engineers, deployed in the department over a period of three years while they transfer skills to our skilled professional staff. Further weaknesses identified in the past year include the administrative processing chain, the lack of innovation, and the absence of a sense of urgency. In the financial year under review, we managed to fast track procurement processes and also improve payment processing. In the course of the year the department completed a project audit in order to ensure that resources are allocated appropriately, project tasks are completed and projects are evaluated accordingly. In order to fast track our service delivery, the Department of Public Works has entered into service level agreements with the Department of Education, Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation, Department of Local Government and the Department of Health and Social Services. These agreements are aimed at improving the delivery of capital projects. Stakeholder engagement In the past financial year, we have spent considerable time interacting with our stakeholders by meeting with contractors and consultants through our Departmental Outreach Programme. We offered them a platform to express their views, frustrations and appreciation and to influence our policies and programmes. From these interactions, we learnt first-hand about the challenges experienced by contractors in accessing government infrastructure tenders, their frustration with some of our procurement and payment policies and procedures as well as the constraints they face in accessing finance. We also hosted a number of construction summits in order to come to an agreement with stakeholders as to how to transform the construction industry in Mpumalanga, utilising government muscle. The first Youth in Construction Summit was held in June last year, followed by a Women in Construction Summit in August 2007, a workshop for persons with disability in October 2007 and a series of municipal and private sector workshops in February this year. The consultation process culminated in a final Provincial Construction Summit on 6 and 7 March 2008. Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA), Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust (MRTT), Further Education and Training Colleges and the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) participated in the process towards the summits and the summits themselves. The resolutions formulated at the Provincial Construction Summit have given this department a solid base for transforming the provincial construction industry. One of our first steps towards implementing the Summit resolutions will be to put in place the province’s first Construction Contact Centre in conjunction with the CIDB by September 2008. Undoubtedly, this office will add value to contractors, especially emerging contractors as well as our targeted groups. This will prevent our emerging contractors having to travel all the way to Pretoria to attend to CIDB registration matters. Furthermore, we will be signing memorandum of understanding with FNB in July 2008 for the provisioning of mentorship and funding to emerging contractors. The transformation of the Construction Industry Through the construction summits, the department gained extensive experience that inspired fresh and innovative thinking. Such fresh thinking included the repositioning of the Department of Public Works to play a more active role in the transformation and development of the construction and property industries. The department will also now be able to respond in a more concrete manner to the challenge of scarcity of technical skills, for both suppliers, artisans and professionals as we gear up for the remainder of this term of office. As part of our strategy to develop small, medium and micro enterprises and to invest in capacity building in the construction industry, we will continue to strengthen the Sakh’abakhi Emerging Contractor Development. We will develop a procurement framework that will enable experienced contractors to subcontract, mentor and transfer skills to less experienced contractors in order to eliminate poor workmanship and slow progress on some infrastructure projects. Furthermore, the development of SMMEs and targeted group companies (for women, youth, persons with disability and military veterans) through the management of the departmental supplier database will be prioritised. Improving Infrastructure Delivery Mechanisms Madam Speaker, it is worth noting that since the introduction of the CIDB Register of Contractors there has definitely been an enhancement of capacity in the Mpumalanga construction industry, with many of our contractors improving their grading status. The quality of contractors’ work has also improved as the number of contractors registered on higher levels increased. Statistics regarding the improvement in registration with the CIDB can be noted as follows: In April 2006, there were only 682 contractors registered in Mpumalanga. This increased to 3098 registrations by 2007 and to 5 352 active registrations in 2008. Regarding the empowerment of our targeted groups, we are finding that most of them are still registered at the lower CIDB gradings. Although 3 068 are woman-owned, and 1 812 are owned by youth, only 77 woman contractors and 38 youth contractors can actively participate in the mainstream, because they are above Grade 5. It is worth noting that 4 374 out of the 5 352 active contractors already mentioned are registered at Grade 1 or emerging contractor level. A mere 13 contractors are registered above Grade 7 – only 10 more compared to the figures in 2006. This means that we still need to do a lot of work as a department to open up more lucrative opportunities in government infrastructure work for our emerging contractors through a combination of skills development and capacitation. The Department’s Sakh’ abakhi emerging contractor development programme is now in its third year of existence and some of the contractors that were initially registered at Grade 1 with the CIDB and have now moved up to Grades 3, 4 and 5. The new departmental framework on contractor development will ensure that capacity is built even in the higher grades. Therefore 100 contractors are targeted for Grades 3 to 4, 50 contractors will be moved to Grades 5 to 6, and another 20 moved to CIDB gradings 7 and 8 by 2010. Property Management The department currently manages all government properties and buildings owned by Mpumalanga Provincial Government, making it one of the largest property owners in the province. In this regard, the implementation of the Government Immovable Asset Management Act (GIAMA) is one of the key priorities for this financial year. GIAMA, which was formally proclaimed late last year, provides for improved planning for immovable assets, which in turn will result in more efficient and effective use of these resources. Section 6 of GIAMA requires the Department of Public Works to prepare a custodian immovable asset management plan on all assets under its care. It must also prepare a user immovable asset management plan for all assets that other departments use or are intending to use in support of their own service delivery objectives. These plans must be submitted annually to the Mpumalanga Provincial Treasury. The department has started its engagement with provincial government departments in this regard. To date, a Provincial Technical Implementation Task Team had been established and all departments had been advised to establish their own departmental task teams to ensure that they are on par with the national roll-out programme. The Department will commence with the implementation guidelines for all its accommodation requirements in terms of the BEE strategy for Property Management. Through this strategy, the department intends to increase property opportunities for previously disadvantaged individuals. Maintenance On 21 May 2008, before delivering her budget vote, the National Minister of Public Works unveiled a special government intervention strategy aimed at curbing the state of dilapidation of state fixed assets and infrastructure. The National Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy (NIMS) will affect all spheres of government including parastatals. NIMS will also assist the department with the implementation of the Government Immovable Asset Management Act. Furthermore, maintenance on our own buildings will be implemented through the National Youth Service programme (NYS), with each of the regions identifying such NYS projects. Through our regions, we will also intensify our efforts to deal with routine or emergency maintenance requests. The enhancement of technical staff in regions as well as the decentralisation of some functions will improve the maintenance of buildings and equipment even further. In the past financial year we managed to finalise an Equipment Maintenance Plan. In this financial year, we will focus on finalising the Provincial Building Maintenance Plan and implementing of the Equipment Maintenance Plan. A draft Provincial Maintenance Policy will also be submitted to our stakeholders for input and finalisation during the year. On sustainable energy use and renewables Madam Speaker, the past year has seen the words “load shedding” become part of our daily vocabulary. As the custodian of government buildings and property, the department has already started installing energy saving devices in Government buildings. Energy saving measures are being incorporated into the planning and design of all new government buildings to ensure a greener future. KwaMhlanga Government Complex has been audited on the above with Eskom advising us on suitable energy saving measures. On job creation and skills development through the EPWP We can take pride in the Mpumalanga EPWP’s achievements since 2004, which shows that we have created 70 418 jobs by December last year. This constitutes a remarkable progress towards the targeted 100 000 by the end of 2009 and a substantial contribution to the 950 000 jobs created nationally. Madam Speaker, members of the House, in response to the President’s to ‘massify’ the EPWP, the province has embarked on the scaling up of its EPWP target for the 2008/09 financial year to 50 000 job opportunities. It will definitely have to be all hands on deck and the delivery of these targets has to be in a ‘business unusual’ manner. We have already engaged sector departments and municipalities to set targets for job creation through the Expanded Public Works Programme before the beginning of this financial year, which was a major shortcoming in the past years. We have also interacted with the Department of Labour with regard to forward planning for the appointment of EPWP training service providers. Thorough consultation with municipalities was done and resulted in most municipalities committing 50% of their Municipal Infrastructure Grand (MIG) funds for the EPWP and to set aside 1% of its funding of EPWP projects for training needs. We must say that a major contribution to our massification efforts will be on the construction of access roads through the EPWP and the scaling up of Home Based Community Care and Early Childhood Development projects. National Youth Service Yesterday, we celebrated the Youth Day, the day on which the youth of this country said: Enough is enough, the system of apartheid Bantu Education has to be removed. From this day onward, South Africa was never the same. Young people energized the struggle for liberation that led to the apartheid regime being led from one defeat to the other. This rolled on until the final nail was driven in its coffin during the campaign to make South Africa ungovernable in the 80’s and which led to the unbanning of the liberation movements in the early 90’s. It was during this period that structures of the political organizations were restored in the country, including the ANCYL. At the time, the agenda of this youth organization was more to recruit and educate more youth on the history of the struggle for liberation and about what the National Democratic Revolution is all about. At the same time, it had to mobilize and prepare more youth to defend themselves and their communities during any form attack, which was a common phenomenon at that time. Finally, the youth had to prepare the youth constituencies for governance. Part of the major discussions was around the role the youth had to play in the post liberation struggle period and what form of participation the youth had to take in government and in the general socio-economic development of society. This is the time in which the ideas of a National Youth Service, National Youth Commission and Youth Development Agency were conceptualized and tested. A National Youth Development Agency was to be a vehicle through which youth could be assisted to develop themselves into productive beings in their society. It is for this reason that a productive youth would be mobilized to form voluntary brigades that will from time to time perform a service free of charge. Today the National Youth Service is born and we are assisting the Youth Commission to get it off the ground. Madam Speaker, present in the house is some members of the first provincial (then Regional) Executive Committee of the Youth League that played a major role in selling the idea of the above concepts without fail, including the one for a Youth Service in Mpumalanga. They traveled through the lengths and breaths of this province, on foot and hitch hiking, to spread the message of a responsible youth. They held meetings with all youth structures including those of the National Party, Democratic Party and Conservative Party to talk about the notion of a united youth front on development facilitation. I would like them all to take a bow. Fidel Castro says our ideas are shaped by our history and Yann Martel says: “It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards...” This is the first formal leadership I was ever in close contact and worked with for a considerable period. I can say they shaped my ideas, style of work, reasoning and my passions. The province formally launched the National Youth Service in June last year, and since then the youth identified for these projects were trained in artisanships using a combination of on-the-job and classroom training. For the 2007/08 financial year 500 youths were recruited. The first batch of 193 graduates will be honoured shortly at their graduation ceremony. Exit strategies will see some of the first group made available for employment in the built environment, formal government employment and exit as entrepreneurs with the help of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund. Furthermore, as part of the exist strategy participants have been submitted to the Vul’ematfuba programme co-ordinated by the Office of the Premier for consideration. However, we must indicate that this programme was not born without problems. The fact that we had to introduce it in haste had its own shortcomings. Participants could not receive their stipend on time; protective clothing and equipment were not readily available. Service providers could not be paid on time and, as a result, the participants in two regions, namely Gert Sibande and Nkangala regions, could not undergo theoretical training. To improve the programme, participants in the new intake will be recruited within walking distance of the projects identified. This is to ensure that the stipend is not used for transport. We have already had an interaction with the Department of Labour to address the matter of training service providers that caused such a nightmare in the previous financial year. The National Youth Service will be scaled up in this financial year to recruit 1 000 new members. This is a target this department will seek to achieve head on. I am proud to report that the Mpumalanga National Youth Service is currently being adopted as a best practices model in several other provinces. However, this would not have been possible without a team of dedicated partners. In this regard I would like to single out the South African Youth Council, the Mpumalanga Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the Department of Labour, our FET colleges as well as our artisan staff in the regions that served as trainers and mentors to NYS members. Internal Capacity Building During the presentation of the policy and budget speech for the 2007/08 financial year, I focused to some extent on administrative and operational constraints that prevented the department from focusing on its core function. I am happy to indicate that through the review of the organogram, these constraints have been addressed to a large extent. The department managed to fill 228 funded vacant posts, appointed 29 interns in scarce skills areas and 22 learnerships were implemented in Public Administration and Project Management. In addition 20 bursaries were awarded to academically deserving students to study in different professions of the built environment and other related fields at tertiary institutions - with a specific emphasis on Civil, Structural, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering, Architecture and Quantity Surveying. Another 232 officials attended ABET classes as we continued our efforts to empower staff members at the lower salary levels. Forty (40) officials from the regions had undergone technical training and an additional 28 officials were trained as boilermakers. Further scarce skills initiatives During this past year we realized that the shortage of learners with an interest in studying and training towards the needed trades in the construction industry is caused by the fact that not many of our learners are conversant with Mathematics and Science. We have therefore initiated a programme to adopt schools each year. In the financial year 2007/08 we adopted Sincobile and Sophungane Secondary Schools and we held an exchange programme for Mathematics and Science.This programme provided the learners and educators from the two schools with a learning environment where they could exchange best teaching and learning methods to make Science and Mathematics interesting subjects. The students were further exposed through a variety of presentations to various careers in the built industry. They were addressed by our own engineers in the different fields. For this financial year, we have expanded our efforts to include Chayaza and Madzuma Secondary Schools and we have already conducted career exhibitions for these schools. In partnership with the Education Region in Bushbuckridge, we will hold a joint career exhibition programme in the region during the course of this year. I would love to express our appreciation to FNB for having consistently shown interest to support this initiative for both this and last year’s exchange programme. This bank donated a computer with educational software and internet facilities and a printer to both Sophungana and Sinqobile Schools. Additional to that, scientific calculators were donated to the schools. They have made a commitment to double their support of the programme in this current financial year. Improving internal controls and financial management Honourable speaker before we table our budget for recognition, we want to remind this house that last year in the Auditor General’s report all was not well. In response to this, the department introduced new measures to ensure that audit queries raised in the Auditor-General’s reports are attended to as a matter of urgency. An action plan to address the audit queries was developed and submitted to the Office of the Accountant General. This action plan will serve as a strategy to ensure that all the issues raised by the Auditor-General, are dealt with. In the coming year, the implementation of the Fraud Prevention Plan will be given priority as part of the government’s stance on zero tolerance of fraud and corruption. Our departmental priorities for the 2008/09 financial year include: * The implementation of the Government Immovable Asset Management Act (GIAMA) by compiling user asset management and custodian asset management plans Allocation of the Budget Vote Madam Speaker, honoured guests, it is now my pleasure to present to you the Strategic Plan, Implementation Plan and the Policy and Budget Speech for Vote 8 Public Works for the 2008/09 financial year, distributed into three programmes as follows: * Programme 1 Administration: R57, 525 million (Fifty seven million, five hundred and twenty five thousand) The total budget for the department for the 2008/09 financial year is R429, 572 million (Four hundred and twenty nine million, five hundred and seventy two thousand), which is an increase of R74, 502 million (Seventy four million five hundred and two thousand) over the tabled budget of the previous financial year. If you compare this budget to that of the previous financial year, you will note that the department has once again concentrated its limited funds on the department’s two main functions, namely Public Works Building and Property Management and the coordination of the Provincial Expanded Public Works Programme. Conclusion In conclusion, let me take this opportunity to thank the Office of the Auditor General, Provincial Internal Audit, Provincial Treasury, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Audit Committee for pointing out areas of weakness that needed improvement. This has aided us in improving financial controls and functions in all of our main core function areas. I would also like to thank the Honourable Premier Thabang Makwetla, Members of the Executive Council, Members of the Legislature and the Portfolio Committee on Public Works, Roads and Transport for their guidance , oversight and the advisory role they played in relation to our department. I wish to thank the HOD for the Department, Ms Priscilla Nkwinika, all senior managers as well as staff of the department for their assistance in putting together such a goal directed budget. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the members of my office for their unwavering support at all times during a challenging 2007/08 financial year. I have no doubt that 2008/09 will be a financial year in which this department and government as a whole will place all hands on deck for faster service delivery in the spirit of “Business Unusual”. I thank you Issued by: Department of Public Works, Mpumalanga Provincial Government |