Human Settlements
Whether his Department have programmes in place to develop SMME’s; if so, what are the relevant details in relation to (a) the programme, (b) who are the beneficiaries, (c) what is the criteria used, (d) where is this implemented and (e) how much was allocated in the budget for this programme?
- My Department utilises the services of SMME’s especially with
regards to unblocking of projects within the People’s Housing Process (PHP);
- A Database was established to register SMME’s;
- The Database is being utilised to allocate work/projects to the registered SMME’s to build or repair incomplete houses;
- All compliant (Registered on the Departmental Database, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Western Cape Supplier Database, National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) and South African Revenue Services (SARS)) contractors were allocated work in accordance with their grade capacity with CIDB. A total of twenty six (26) Contractors were/are involved;
- The contracts are formulated to cater for SMME’s by removing cumbersome financial requirements (Surety and bank Guarantee) but still managing risk by making payments only at the completion and certification of work;
- My departments’ professional officials render assistance with mentoring by standardising Bill of Quantities, claim processes and procedure and progress reporting;
- Templates were developed for documentation to all contractors to ease payment claims and reporting are provided;
- Retention was reduced from 10% to 5% of work completed, retained for only 3 months instead of the norm of 6 months to ensure that no latent defects are present; and
- On the successful completion of the contract, a Completion Certificate is issued to the contractor to assist in upgrading their CIDB status/grade.
(b) Attached, as Annexure A is a schedule of beneficiaries, (see B).
(c) The criteria is as follows:
- Must be registered with NHBRC;
- Have a minimum CIDB rating of Grade 2;
- Be registered on the Departmental Database for contractors;
- Registered on the Provincial procurement database: ARIBA;
- Valid SARS certificate.
(d)& (e)The unblocking programme is spread over the Western Cape with the
majority work being in the Metro.
There is no dedicated funding for this programme. Instead funding is
sourced the approved subsidies allocated to the housing
beneficiaries. Attached as Annexure A- see (E)
