The long awaited immovable asset register of the Department of Public Works (DPW) was complete and showed government had in excess of R75-billion worth of land parcels and buildings, a media briefing in Parliament heard on Wednesday.

Briefing journalists on the department’s budget vote, Minister Thulas Nxesi, his deputy Jeremy Cronin and senior officials said gave an update on the asset register which had taken many years to complete.

Paul Serote, head of the Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE), which carries out the property management function of the department, said the number of land parcels belonging to government stood at 31 000 and the number of buildings at over 95 000.

“We have then attached values which is a process which we are currently finalising already to the extent of R75-billion, with an expected value of around R100-billion in terms of the entire portfolio,” said Serote.

“If one were to take the extent of the land parcels in hectares, we are talking in the region of 11.7-million hectares and we also have space, whether it’s residential or office [space] and other facilities which amount to approximately 53-million square metres.”

The DPW budget for 2016/17 is R21.4-billion.

Tabling his budget vote in Parliament, Nxesi said a total of R18.3-billion rand of this would be transferred to department programmes and entities, which would include:

–R6.4-billion to the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) for the creation of work opportunities; and

–R11.4-billion to the PMTE.

The rest of the budget would be used to combat fraud and corruption, bolster the oversight function in the public works sector, and improve the department’s delivery capacity.

The department will prioritise cost saving initiatives, getting value for money spent.

In this regard the PMTE had started the process of renegotiating leases, Nxesi said. The PMTE had already met with landlords in a bid to decrease the amount of money government spent on office and residential leases.