The Department of Public Works (DPW) and its Property Management Training Entity (PMTE), has now moved into the second phase of the department’s turnaround plan, which was first initiated in 2012.

The Efficiency Enhancement phase sought to transform and improve the way the DPW conducted business.

Speaking at the quarterly MinMec meeting, between the nine provincial Public Works MECs and Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, the Minister highlighted that the prior stabilisation of the department’s finances in the first phase, together with the compilation of a comprehensive and reliable Immovable Asset Register (IAR), provided the essential foundation upon which to implement a new business model for the PMTE to fulfil its core mandate of providing accommodation to government and to optimally manage the State property portfolio, which fell under the custodianship of the DPW.

As such, a Real Estate Information and Registry Services (REIRS) branch had been established within the PMTE to ensure efficient management of the IAR.

“We are on track to make the register compliant with the more stringent Generally Recognised Accounting Practice accounting standard by March 31, 2016,” Nxesi pointed out, adding that the department had verified 36 852 land parcels identified between the 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years.

Verification and assessment of the remaining 6 900 land parcels had now started.

Further, the department’s State Domestic Facilities have been identified and accounted for, while a methodology for applying fair values to the department’s properties, based on existing municipal values, was being implemented.

Almost 60% of DPW properties have had municipal values applied in the 2014/15 financial year with the remainder to be completed by March 31, 2016. This resulted in the disclosure of DPW’s properties at R78.1-billion for the year ended March 31.

The disclosed value of assets would increase significantly as the valuation process was finalised and would be properly reflected on the balance sheet of the State.

“The task now falls to the PMTE to leverage this massive property portfolio for economic development, job creation and black economic empowerment, as well as the generation of revenue for the maintenance of the State’s assets,” Nxesi said.

Further, he highlighted that many of the DPW’s woes could be traced to a lack of stable and consistent leadership in the department. In response to this, and to lead the operationalisation of the PMTE, a number of “important” appointments had been made.

In addition, the PMTE identified critical professional technical skills in the engineering, built environment and property and investment management disciplines which would be in-sourced using retired professionals.

“Operationalising the PMTE, which involves ring-fencing and professionalising the core property business, also frees up the DPW to focus on its own core mandate to develop policy and regulation of the built environment, together with providing effective oversight of the wider public works family – particularly provinces and entities.

“When we embarked on this turnaround process, the relationship between national and provincial departments was, at best, a very loose one. The poorly performing DPW was in no condition to provide the kind of oversight and leadership envisaged in the concurrent mandate enshrined in the Constitution.

“I believe this has now changed – largely because we collectively understood that to carry out our respective mandates effectively, we have to work together across a range of areas,” Nxesi said.