The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (Defence Committee) has urged the Department of Defence (DoD) to develop a thoroughgoing plan to create a fully-functional Defence Works Formation (DWF) and to implement it in an incremental manner. This followed a briefing presented to the committee by the DoD.

The responsibility for the development and maintenance of defence infrastructure was being transferred to the DoD by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI). Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations had issued instructions to this effect in March last year. 

This had been the result of the DPWI’s inability to adequately maintain defence bases and facilities. The DWF was created to take over the DPWI’s maintenance and development activities regarding DoD infrastructure.

However, Secretary of Defence Dr Sam Gulube told the Defence Committee that the DoD lacked the funding to “optimise” the DWF. This was because the DOD as a whole was suffering from inadequate funding, especially regarding the personnel budget. 

Although the DoD had “inherited” certain funding from the DPWI, this could only be used to acquire goods and services. One consequence was that, while the DoD could hire consultants for the DWF, it could not recruit full-time staff (such as architects, artisans, civil engineers and quantity surveyors) for the formation.

“The committee has heard and agrees that the transfer of functions should also be accompanied by the budget from the DPWI,” said the Defence Committee in its statement. “The committee acknowledged the validity of the challenges faced by the DoD and noted the efforts made in ensuring on-the-job training and other areas, but it is also of the opinion that these have been ongoing for many years and need urgently to be addressed.”

The committee recommended that the transfer of responsibilities from the DPWI to the DoD’s DWF should be carried out in a series of smaller steps, easier to achieve and easier to monitor. The committee also stated that it would follow this issue up with the DoD within the next three months.