Infrastructure
In respect of the Project Management Office at his Department:
- (a) What are the responsibilities of the Project Management Office, (b) how many employees formed part of this office and (c) what was its total budget in the (i) 2019/20, (ii) 2020/21, (iii) 2021/22, (iv) 2022/23 and (v) 2023/24 financial year;
- whether there was an approved structure for the Project Management Office; if not, why not; if so, (a) in which directorate did this office operate and (b) from which programme did its funding come;
- (a) what are the reasons for terminating the contracts of all the employees in this office by the end of February and (b) who will assume their responsibilities?
(a) The key responsibilities of the Project Management Office are as follows:
- Engage stakeholders for updated project information.
- Proactively identify, highlight, and address risks and issues whereby allowing more response time.
- Assist with keeping information up to date using information systems applicable.
- Contribute to efficient, effective, and consistent reporting, such as M&E and the Business Plan.
- Assist with responding to audit requests
- Assist with tracking and reporting on project applications and approvals.
- Assist with records management procedures in so far as performance information is concerned.
(b) The unit consisted of fourteen (14) employees when it was initially conceptualised, and the number decreased to nine (9) as some of the officials resigned to take up opportunities offered to them by other institutions
(c) The total budget in the financial years was as indicated hereunder:
(i) 2019/20 : R 3 015 397
(ii) 2020/21 : R 3 195 445
(iii) 2021/22: R 3 357 839
(iv) 2022/23: R 3 489 970
(v) 2023/24: R 2 450 490 (April 2023 – June 2023 and September 2023 to February 2024)
(2) (a) The Project Management Office (PMO) unit was additional to the approved staff establishment of the then Department of Human Settlements (DHS) and the positions were thus filled on a fixed term contractual basis. It’s operations were managed from the Directorate: Strategic Management Support. (b) While the activities of the unit were financed from OPSCAP budget until the 2020/2021 financial year and Department’s own funding as of the 2021/22 financial year.
(3)(a) CoE funding to extend contracts after June 2023 did not exist. Given the need to migrate from Biz Projects to PCS, the Department of Infrastructure (DoI) made funding available from a different Branch in terms of CoE, enabling contract extension until February 2024. All the costs for system changes are being carried by the Department of Infrastructure budget.
The then Human Settlements Department merged with the Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW) to become the Department of Infrastructure (DoI). The DoI has an overarching Departmental Project Office, with small components in each Branch. Human Settlements must replicate this. The system used is also different: where Human Settlements used BizProjects (which is shutting down on 29 February 2024), DoI uses PCS. The end-February date correlates to the closure of BizProjects. In addition, CoE funding in Human Settlements is under severe strain. It was thus necessary to re-allocate under-utilized staff to take over the function permanently. 3 staff members have thus been permanently relocated to the Branch PMO, which will result in significant CoE savings. The Branch PMO will be housed in the Office of the Chief Director: Human Settlement Implementation. Human Settlements is also moving over to PCS, which will go live on 1 March 2024.
(b) The functions of capturing information onto the PCS within DoI is managed at the source, which in the case of Human Settlements, will be the Project / Construction Managers. This would lessen the impact on CoE in terms of a heavy contract deployment, as the work is now captured at source. The Branch PMO collates and analyses information already captured into the PCS system by Project Managers, feeding it into the broader DPO monitoring and evaluating basis. Support for the Human Settlements Branch PMO thus exists through the DPO, also lessening the demand to contract in additional human resources.
