Parliament, Tuesday, 6 November 2018 – The Portfolio Committee on Public Works believes that the Department of Public Works should fulfil its mandate of conducting oversight over the Independent Development Trust (IDT). The committee has heard that the IDT needs to be properly restructured, aligned and repositioned so that it can further the mandate that it has been given of implementing of all governments infrastructure programmes.

The committee believes that this restructuring is necessary because IDT is in a mess financially as the Auditor-General has made a lot of findings against the entity due to the fact that the entity has been getting a lot of disclaimers for the past few years consecutively. The committee was informed today that the Minister of Public Works, Mr Thulas Nxesi must still take the business case of the IDT to cabinet and after the business case has been agreed to by cabinet the minister will then bring it to the committee and thereafter the executive authority will sign off on the business case. The business case of the IDT entails plans to rescue the IDT and to assist the IDT to further the mandate and to ensuring that a smooth process of the IDT is in place.

The committee has been informed that the process is expected to be completed by the end of the year and the department is expected to report back to the committee at the beginning of next year.

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS, MR HUMPHREY MMEMEZI.

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