ActionSA is expressing concern regarding the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), which, despite exhausting 98% of its budget in the 2023/2024 financial year, has completed only 59% of its projects, with the Auditor General’s report exposing the department’s blatant refusal to address rampant misconduct and corruption during this period, leaving a pressing question: where has the money gone?
Concerningly, three of the DPWI’s five entities have not submitted financial reports to the Auditor General, creating a shocking state of affairs that amounts to a black hole in the financial oversight and management of these assets and the facilities under their care, which in turn explains the dilapidated state of public infrastructure, including run down schools and even prisons, as we uncovered this week during oversight visits to correctional centres in Gauteng.
The DPWI is South Africa’s largest landlord, yet it appears incapable of managing or even attempting to maintain billions worth of public assets under its care, with these assets deteriorating, eroding their economic potential, and adding to our national debt, while the department’s inability to recover approximately R300 billion from client departments is symptomatic of a deeper institutional rot.
Most shockingly, the DPWI doesn’t even know where its assets are located or their condition, with the failure to provide the portfolio committee with an updated asset register being not just negligence but an act of gross incompetence. How can they manage public assets, plan maintenance and ensure proper use when they don’t even know what they have or where it is?
Recently, the Minister has trotted out and lauded his department’s ‘achievements’, with the recent removal of squatters in a single building being nothing more than a hollow PR stunt, a mere drop in the ocean of failure. DPWI is overseeing the hijacking of dozens government buildings, where illegal occupants live rent-free, draining resources like water and electricity while the department does nothing.
Numbers don’t lie, project delays are rampant. Eighteen projects worth R4 billion were cancelled outright, while 378 projects valued at R13 billion are delayed. Contractors are abandoning projects halfway through, and DPWI continues to appoint firms lacking the capacity to complete even the simplest tasks. It’s a procurement disaster, where oversight is non-existent and taxpayer money is wasted on half-baked contracts.
Communities, especially those requiring policing, have been abandoned. With five incomplete police stations and an eight year delay in the Telkom Towers project, the department has failed to deliver vital services to citizens living in areas terrorised by crime.
ActionSA believes that the leadership of Public Works and Infrastructure has not only dropped the ball but much like their assets register has lost it entirely, thus demanding urgent reform to reverse the decay.
Public Works and Infrastructure: Ground Zero for a Catastrophic Failure in Leadership
ActionSA is expressing concern regarding the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), which, despite exhausting 98% of its budget in the 2023/2024 financial year, has completed only 59% of its projects, with the Auditor General’s report exposing the department’s blatant refusal to address rampant misconduct and corruption during this period, leaving a pressing question: where has the money gone?
Concerningly, three of the DPWI’s five entities have not submitted financial reports to the Auditor General, creating a shocking state of affairs that amounts to a black hole in the financial oversight and management of these assets and the facilities under their care, which in turn explains the dilapidated state of public infrastructure, including run down schools and even prisons, as we uncovered this week during oversight visits to correctional centres in Gauteng.
The DPWI is South Africa’s largest landlord, yet it appears incapable of managing or even attempting to maintain billions worth of public assets under its care, with these assets deteriorating, eroding their economic potential, and adding to our national debt, while the department’s inability to recover approximately R300 billion from client departments is symptomatic of a deeper institutional rot.
Most shockingly, the DPWI doesn’t even know where its assets are located or their condition, with the failure to provide the portfolio committee with an updated asset register being not just negligence but an act of gross incompetence. How can they manage public assets, plan maintenance and ensure proper use when they don’t even know what they have or where it is?
Recently, the Minister has trotted out and lauded his department’s ‘achievements’, with the recent removal of squatters in a single building being nothing more than a hollow PR stunt, a mere drop in the ocean of failure. DPWI is overseeing the hijacking of dozens government buildings, where illegal occupants live rent-free, draining resources like water and electricity while the department does nothing.
Numbers don’t lie, project delays are rampant. Eighteen projects worth R4 billion were cancelled outright, while 378 projects valued at R13 billion are delayed. Contractors are abandoning projects halfway through, and DPWI continues to appoint firms lacking the capacity to complete even the simplest tasks. It’s a procurement disaster, where oversight is non-existent and taxpayer money is wasted on half-baked contracts.
Communities, especially those requiring policing, have been abandoned. With five incomplete police stations and an eight year delay in the Telkom Towers project, the department has failed to deliver vital services to citizens living in areas terrorised by crime.
ActionSA believes that the leadership of Public Works and Infrastructure has not only dropped the ball but much like their assets register has lost it entirely, thus demanding urgent reform to reverse the decay.