Honourable Speaker, we have impressed upon this house in the past and during the 2013/14 budget speech the importance of Investing in infrastructure operations and maintenance as it offers outstanding opportunities for economic stimulation for the Province.
The relationship between socio-economic growth and development and infrastructure delivery has been strongly emphasized in the past through our provincial government’s commitment to infrastructure delivery which is demonstrated by the fact that since 2009/10 a total amount of R 5.075 billion has been spent on infrastructure by the province.
The Northern Cape government’s commitment to generating economic growth and development by means of the infrastructure has been further enhanced with a budget allocated for the next three years, which amounts to R 5.928 billion; over the MTEF. The department has gone through a rigorous process of capacitating the infrastructure and public private partnership directorate to enable the province to leverage the full potential that the PPP process and the infrastructure delivery improvement programme methodologies assist the province in managing infrastructure at provincial and local government more effectively. Infrastructure delivery is therefore crucial in supporting the Government’s objective of extending access of social services to the poor and especially to rural communities.
Therefore, alternative PPP processes will assist the province in unlocking and mobilizing funding through PPP arrangements. Saving on project costs, improved quality and systems performance from the use of innovative materials and management techniques, substitution of private resources and personnel for constrained public resources and access to new sources of private capital are amongst some of the benefits that the province may derive in implementing successful PPP projects.
The Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP) has been a valuable source of learning for government in the understanding by departments of the principles embodied in the Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS) Toolkit focusing on Portfolio; Programme and Operations and Maintenance Management.
The provincial infrastructure team has also developed a documented body of knowledge, Code of Good Practice and Standard Operating Procedures that represent generally recognized best practices focused on the delivery and life cycle management of public sector infrastructure. Subsequent to the latter the infrastructure team is in the process of finalizing the Northern Cape Infrastructure Delivery Management System (NC IDMS) in conjunction with National Treasury and the National Sector departments which will provide the backbone for Infrastructure Management for the province and it will be managed and implemented through the web based system tool namely PROMAN to ensure institutionalisation of the NC IDMS process.
While all areas of infrastructure management and the alternative methodologies at our disposal described above must be addressed, taking a long term view and focusing on key areas is of utmost importance. The most important element is the acceptance that infrastructure planning and delivery improvement is a long term programme and requires key management commitment to the life cycle costing approach. It should be recognized that this approach will only be facilitated through the development of an Infrastructure Delivery Management System frameworks, that will enable the province to meet its policy priorities in terms of the implementation and management of our Infrastructure portfolio to ensure the effective management of infrastructure in our province and the realization of governments goal to social up-liftment and economic empowerment through infrastructure.