Ward 66’s new website extends transparency to residents
"There is a lot of corruption and fraud going on and to solve any of that you first need to know what is going on on the ground," OSS War Room chairperson, Charles Leaven.
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A NEW online tool to empower ratepayers and residents about council projects was recently launched.
Championed by ward 66’s OSS War Room chairperson, Charles Leaven, Bluff Projects, aims to take transparency to the next level by making information about construction projects, their allocated budget, the assigned contractor, and project duration viable to the public on demand.
“The whole idea behind Bluff Projects is to manage the local aspect of projects, namely the local database of local labour and enterprise. Managing this requires a lot of work and we’ve now built a tool to be able to deal with that.”
“This is to ensure that the community knows what a particular project is about and also to attend to social aspects of what is happening because they are doing work in our community. It also happens to be that our tax and rate payers’ money that is being spent, so the community deserves to know what is going on,” he said.
Leaven added that the website is a window of transparency as to what is going on on the ground because it allows any member of the community to understand the activities on-site, how the community benefits and with the knowledge, challenge it if necessary.
“There is a lot of corruption and fraud going on and to solve any of that you first need to know what is going on on the ground.”
“Unemployed people are invited to submit their CVs on the website by filling out a form online to be part of the database. They will receive a ticket which will let them know how far down the line they are. This is to give a fair opportunity for people to work on various projects in our community.”
“There is also an application for local contractors to have an opportunity to participate in local projects. I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible to ensure that the important things are highlighted such as information and an opportunity to get work,” he added.
He said by law, a contractor has to hire out a certain percentage of local people. Through the website, residents can be well informed about this, as it is one of the biggest challenges currently, with people from neighbouring communities taking work from locals and “enough is enough, our people need the work, this is our community and it is not fair.”
Visit www.bluffprojects.co.za for more information.
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