Business Report
*Nxesi calls for technical people* *Roy Cokayne, Business Report, Johannesburg, 5 July 2012*The scourge of corrupt officials and tenderpreneurs who corrupted them had to be addressed at the political level and by mobilising all the relevant security agencies and legal processes, new Public Works Minister Thembelani Nxesi said yesterday.
Nxesi indicated that he was embarking on a turnaround strategy for his department and appealed to the private sector to second people with technical skills to the department to get the systems in place for its turnaround.
He also gave notice that further legislation was in the works to drive transformation of the construction sector.
Years of poor management, undercapacity and lack of financial controls at the Public Works Department had provided a fertile terrain for fraud and corruption, Nxesi told a Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) national stakeholder forum in Kempton Park yesterday.
Nxesi said this had been most apparent in relation to leases, although he did not doubt there were problems on the construction side of the department. He said 22 irregular leases had been identified in one region alone, involving payments of more than R24 million.
"This includes leases where the department paid for the duration of the lease without the building being occupied. We have instructed our lawyers to approach the high court to nullify these irregular lease agreements and institute civil action against whoever benefited unduly. Criminal cases are being opened against several officials. More are expected."
Nxesi stressed that corrupt officials and the tenderpreneurs who corrupted them drained resources intended for service delivery to the poor. It also demoralised honest civil servants.
Nxesi said the department's head office in Pretoria had been renovated in 2004 and renovated again in 2006, but this was only completed this year with the cost increasing from R49m to more than R300m.
He said the department had to improve its project management, budgeting and monitoring skills, which it did not have in-house.
The initial diagnosis of the problems in the department indicated it was run by social scientists instead of technical people. The department needed more key professional and technical people, such as architects and land surveyors.
"We need these technical skills in all the provinces except for Western Cape and Gauteng," he added.
Nxesi said the government remained responsible for the regulation and transformation of the construction sector.
But he said currently only 25 percent of qualified built environment professionals were black and there was a problem with aspirant young black graduates not finding placements in the industry to allow them to get the necessary experience to qualify for professional status.
*From: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/nxesi-calls-for-technical-people-1.1334574*
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