Council for the Built Environment Budget and Strategic Plan 2008/9

Meeting report

Council for the Built Environment (CBE) Strategic plan and budget briefing
Mr Bheki Zulu, CEO, Council for the Built Environment, tabled the Strategic Plan and Budget to the Committee. He outlined the vision, mission and values to the Committee. The vision of the CBE was to provide sustainable built environment professions that served public and national interests. The mission of the CBE was to facilitate integrated development, whilst promoting efficiency and effectiveness through leadership of the built environment professions. CBE had values of integrity, transparency, excellence and innovation.

He then started to outline the strategic objectives. He listed the following as CBE’s strategic objectives: To improve stakeholder relations and create partnerships to improve service delivery; to intervene in improving the performance of the skills delivery pipeline; to transform and consolidate the regulatory, institutional and structural framework regulating the functioning of the CBE and the professional councils (PCs); to ensure an effective and efficient public protection regime; and ensure the alignment of the activities of the CBE and the Black Empowerment Professional Councils with national imperatives and initiatives.

The Chairperson intervened at this point and asked why these objectives differed from those that were set out in Vote 5.

Mr Zulu said that this could better be explained in writing. There had been some confusion in the compilation of the objectives.

Mr L Maduma (ANC) said that the budget to be voted on should match that budget that was sitting with National Treasury, which was a budget of the National Department of Public Works (DPW). He noted that the objectives being presented by DPW were different to those being presented by CBE. He would not like to continue with the meeting under those circumstances.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting for a while to allow the CBE to consult with the Ministry on this matter. 
 
After a break, Mr Zulu thanked the Chairperson for her indulgence, and said that the objectives of aligning CBE with national and Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional objectives had not been lost. The language could have been clearer and he apologised for any misunderstanding. 
   
Mr Zulu tabled the budget.

The Chairperson pointed out that it seemed the salaries and meeting expenses in the CBE budget were higher than the project amounts.

Mr Zulu confirmed that the CBE was budgeting for a deficit.

Mr Zulu finally listed some of the challenges for the CBE. These included lack of synergy between the CBE and professional councils; inadequate funding; poor achievements of set mandates; and inadequate protection of the public.
 
Discussion
The Chairperson asked whether there had been any attempts to tackle the challenge of lack of synergy between CBE and the Professional Councils. She regarded this as one of the most important issues that needed to be addressed.

Mr Zulu responded that the attempts to reach synergy were a process. In the past relationships had been weaker and therefore there had been some progress. He said that the Committee should understand that there were structural challenges, and essential resources were not funded by National Treasury. He also said that in this year the CBE would have to work hard to formulate a budget that placed the CBE and the Professional Councils under one budget, that would be submitted to the Department of Public Works (DPW). He said that he saw that as a way of creating synergy.

Ms C Ramotsamai (ANC) said that in the past there was a problem where Professional Councils did not want to accept graduates from previously disadvantaged universities. She wanted to know what CBE was doing about this. She further wanted to know how the Committee could be satisfied that the role played by CBE would be to the benefit of society in the future. She was concerned about the continuing shortage of women in construction. She also enquired what CBE was doing for the youth.

Mr Zulu responded that if a person was not in the mainstream they tended not to benefit. However, instead of waiting for people to come and register the CBE would actively go out and ask people how they could help.

Mr J Blanche (DA) wanted to know whether CBE had involved government departments to make sure that they trained people in what they were supposed to do. On the question of public awareness, Blanche asked why the CBE did not have qualified people in local government as construction inspectors, in order to ensure that sustainable houses were built.

Mr Zulu responded that the CBE was placing people in consulting firms in order for them to acquire knowledge. These people were paid by the Department of Public Works.

Mr L Maduma (ANC) said that the CBE should address the problem of graduates who were being discriminated against as a result of race or educational institution, and asked for details as to how this would be addressed.

Mr Zulu responded said that CBE would check whether universities are accredited only every five years, so it was only at that time that it was possible to find out which had been accredited. He also told the Committee that in the past it was up to the individual university to decide whether or not they wanted to be accredited. This should not be the case and the CBE was taking care of this matter, and many CBE structures accredited any university that offered training in their fields.

The Chairperson asked how quality checks were done by CBE and said that the Portfolio Committee needed to be given a presentation on both this and health and safety issues. The Chairperson further asked CBE why salaries and meeting expenses were more than the money spent on the projects. The Chairperson further said that the Department should have interventions to take care of the challenges highlighted.

Mr Zulu responded, in regard to quality, that the professional councils would regulate quality through accreditation, which meant that universities had to meet requirements and that if they did not then their accreditation could always be taken away.

Mr Zulu advised the Chairperson that he thought she would find a similar financial situation in all councils. He agreed that this was a problem because the budget represented only the CBE, and not all that the CBE had to do with the Professional Councils.

Ms M Ngcengwane (ANC) asked Mr Zulu why some of their objectives as set out had no timelines attached to them.

Professor Naidoo, member of the CBE, said that the timelines were taken out of the presentation as they needed to be re-worked, but that these should be available by June.

The meeting was adjourned.