The Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure has highlighted the urgent need to repurpose the Property Management and Trading Entity (PMTE) to make sure that this government unit, which is responsible for managing publicly owned buildings and government land, plays a leading role in the sector.
Yesterday, the committee met with PMTE, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) and the Department of Public Service and Administration to discuss the PMTE’s business model, the value of the government property portfolio and debt owed by sister departments.
PMTE manages a huge property portfolio of about 80 000 buildings and over 27 000 pockets of land valued at about R154 billion. The committee believes the entity could play a leading role in the property sector if it applied standard sector business principles and benchmarks against the private sector, while operating competently to generate revenue for the state.
The committee is concerned about poor maintenance of infrastructure, abandoned government buildings, unfinished projects and unused public land that costs the DPWI in municipal rates, taxes and security.
Members of the committee proposed that the department and the entity should consider partnering with municipalities to use empty buildings for social housing. Meanwhile, committee member Mr Erik Marais suggested that disposing of buildings that are no longer in use would save the department money in municipal services and security costs. “To keep on hanging on land and buildings that are not bringing any revenue is stupidity. Sell the unused buildings and remain with ones you can manage and maintain,” advised Mr Marais.
Other members advised that any sale of state property must be insulated from corruption at the hands of unscrupulous public servants and big role players in the sector.
Another proposal was for the DPWI and PMTE to engage with municipalities and provincial governments to identify unused buildings for use in social housing projects and land for development.
The committee also had concerns about the huge debt government departments occupying government buildings owe to PMTE, while committee members rejected suggestions that the reason for the non-payment is lack of funds. “It is not correct that the client departments that owe PMTE do not have money. How come they afford to rent from the private sector at even higher rates? PMTE must come up with a strategy to collect the money owed by these departments,” said committee member Ms Malebo Kobe.
The committee Chairperson, Ms Carol Phiri, said the matter of unfinished projects creates the perception that the department is failing to deliver on its mandate. She also wanted to know why contractors leave incomplete work.
The DPWI and the PMTE said that, in some cases, abandoned or incomplete projects result when departments approve projects but then suspend money in later years, once the project is already underway. Departmental budget cuts also sometimes have an impact on project completion.
The committee recommended that the DPWI and PMTE must present regular progress reports on the various development projects, submit the asset register in two weeks and provide updates on a number of issues raised by members.
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