Transparency is at the heart of the newly-launched Lutsinga Infrastructure House.
On 25 May, Member of the Executive Council (MEC) of the Department of Infrastructure Development, Jacob Mamabolo unveiled the state-of-the-art infrastructure project management centre that is said to be a game changer in fighting corruption and also improving service delivery.
In his address, Mamabolo said this was the birth of the bedrock and sounding board of service delivery in Gauteng. “Today, we are launching an automated service delivery conscience that will tell us what is going right or wrong in our business value of ensuring that the government of our province adequately services the needs of our communities,” he said.
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Lutsinga Infrastructure House, which is situated at the department’s headquarters in the CBD, has an integrated service delivery dashboard that brings together updated information on construction and refurbishment projects for education infrastructure, maintenance projects on health infrastructure, and participant and performance information on projects under the Expanded Public Works Programme. It also provides a system for managing the recently completed Immovable Asset Register for all immovable public assets in Gauteng.
A live screen on the value and performance of public infrastructure has also been developed and will serve as an indicator of public assets in the province. Mamabolo said this innovation was going to put the provincial government in good stead to plan properly before building schools and hospitals.
“For many years, we have been building schools and hospitals in isolation and this resulted in the underutilisation of public land because our approach to public infrastructure delivery was fragmented and poorly co-ordinated.”
According to the MEC, the project will also bring transparency in the whole project management process because it is going to automate and monitor business processes in real time. “Gone are the days where project managers would run projects from excel spreadsheets and scraps of paper that are only understood by them.”
On waste and corruption, Mamabolo said the days of spending public funds for the sake of spending were over. He said the system was going to assist the department in getting the best value from each rand and cent they spend.
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