1. EASTERN CAPE ECD Conditional Grant Fourth Quarter 2017/18
Maintenance and Administration Component Report
Presented by Ms. N.L. Baart
Head of Department
2018/12/29

2. Presentation Outline Background
Key elements of Guideline for Maintenance Grant for 2017/2018
Administration of the grant
Maintenance Component 17/18
Rollover 2017/18
Challenges
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3. Background
The Children’s Act No 38 of 2005 requires that Early Childhood Development Centres be registered as Partial Care Facilities.
The ECDSD had managed to register 576 ECD Centres conditionally up to March 2016.
The Centres could not obtain full registration due to non-compliance to minimum norms and standards applicable to Partial Care facilities.
The Department was allocated a Conditional Grant for the 2017/18 financial year for:
COE for 3 officials with building technical capacity and 1 admin clerk.
Maintenance for 180 ECDs.
Goods and services.
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4. Key elements of Guideline for Maintenance Grant for 2017/2018
Partial care facilities offering ECD programmes that are registered conditionally will be eligible for the maintenance grant.
Minor building and maintenance improvements aimed at ensuring ECD centres comply with the health and safety norms and standards, as identified by the National Department of Social Development will be funded from the grant.
The maximum value to be spent per ECD centre for maintenance improvements was set at R100  with an option to obtain approval for an amount limited to 30% of the R100 000.00
Provinces were to conduct assessments of conditionally registered centres and cost them in order to qualify for maintenance grant funding in 2017/18 .
All maintenance projects must be recorded on the National Treasury Infrastructure Reporting Model (IRM).
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5. Administration of the grant
Recruitment
The post of Quantity Surveyor, level 12 and two Project Managers, level 9 received the PCMT approval dated 20 April 2017.
The PCMT approved the posts be advertised for 12 months contract only in line with Public Service Regulations unless approval is obtained from the Minister of Public Service Administration
The posts were advertised as per the approval received and minimal applications were received in response. This resulted in the recruitment for the post of Quantity Surveyor being unsuccessful.
In June 2017, National DSD was advised of the challenges being experienced as a result of the 12 month contract for the posts unless the authorization was received for a three contract approved by the Minister of Public Service Administration
Despite several reminders and follow ups, no assistance was received in this regard.
National DSD instead sent communication to ECDSD revising the post from Quantity Surveyor to Construction Project Manager for which approval was received from PCMT dated 20 November 2017 and the post was advertised for 12 months and closed on 16 February 2018.
The two Project Managers assumed duties in November and December 2017 respectively and the Admin Assistant is to be appointed in May 2018.
2018/12/29

6. Maintenance Component 17/18
The list of ECDs for maintenance for 2017/2018 was approved within the Department on 30 March 2017.
Due to the slow progress on recruitment, Provincial Department of Roads and Public Works(ECDRPW) was requested in September 2017 to perform the technical assessment of the 180 ECDs.
Assessments from the ECDRPW were received in November and December 2017 respectively.
Bills of Quantities were then complied from the assessments by the two Project Managers in December 2017 and January 2018.
SCM tender process was implemented with for phase one tender (63 ECDs) was advertised on 02 February 2018 and closed on 05 March 2018, phase two (11 ECDs) was advertised on 23 February and closed on 26 March
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7. Maintenance Component 17/18
Challenges encountered during the SCM tender process:
The Business Forum in Alfred Nzo District ( part of phase 1)raised issues during the two tender briefing sessions. This resulted in the cancellation of the tender.
The tender for the Buffalo City Municipality (part of phase 1) was also cancelled due to the fact that some of the centres that were on the 2017/18 master list had already benefited in the previous financial year.
Ownership of the ECD Centres could only be obtained for 79 centres and therefore only the 79 could be tendered for
2018/12/29

8. Maintenance Component 17/18
SUMMARY LIST OF OWNERSHIP AND ASSESSMENTS FOR MAINTENANCE
District
No. Communal ECDs(Phase 1)
No. Communal ECDs (Phase 2)
Alfred Nzo 19 1
Amathole 15
BCM 6
Chris Hani 5
Joe Gqabi 9
NMM
O.R Tambo
Sarah Baartman 2
Total 63 11
Totalling to 79 ECD centres
5 ECD were to be included in phase 3
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9. 2017/18 Tender Status
No.
District name
Tender number
Closing date
Status of tender 1.
Joe Gqabi District (phase1)
SCMU4-17/
5 March 2018
Tender with BEC 2.
Alfred Nzo District
(phase 1)
SCMU4-17/
Was 5 MARCH 2018 extended to 19 March 2018
Tender cancelled 3.
Amatole District
SCMU4-17/ 4.
Buffalo City Municipality (phase 1)
SCMU4-17/
Tender Cancelled 5.
Sarah Baartman District
SCMU4-17/ 6.
Nelson Mandela Municipality
SCMU4-17/ 7.
Buffalo City Municipality
(phase 2)
SCMU4-17/
26 March 2018 8.
Chris Hani District (phase 2)
SCMU4-17/
Because of cancelation of Alfred Nzo and amendment on BCM there is a drop in the number from 79 ECDs to 52 ECDs
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10. ALLOCATION VS EXPENDITURE OF THE MAINTENANCE GRANT 17/18
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Quarter 4
Total
Funds Transferred Maintenance R0 R R
R Maintenance portion of the grant
Expenditure Maintenance
Application for rollover made to Provincial Treasury
Actual Expenditure Admin R R R
Administration portion of the grant
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11. Rollover Application - 2017/18
An application for rollover to the value of R ,00 was submitted to Provincial Treasury in April 2018.
The rollover funding will be used for tenders that are still in process from 2017/18 financial year.
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12. CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED
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13. Recruitment Challenges
The post of quantity surveyor, level 12 and two project managers, level 9 received the PCMT approval dated 20 April 2017.
The PCMT approved the posts be advertised for 12 month contract only since this was in line with Public Service Regulations 2016 unless the Minister of Public Service Administration provided authorization for contract to be in line with the conditional grant
The posts were advertised as per the approval received and 15 applications were received. Two declined the interview and one was interviewed but not recommended for appointment. This affected the recruitment process
An was sent to national in June 2017 alerting National of the challenges being experienced as a result of the 12 month contract for the posts unless the authorization was received for a three contract approved by the Minister of Public Service Administration
Despite several reminders and follow ups in July and August 2017, no assistance was received in this regard.
This matter was further raised in the ECD: Conditional grant meeting held on 18 September 2017.
National DsD sent a revised specification for the post to be re-configured as Project manager: Construction Management in October
The Province immediately presented this re-configured post to the PCMT on 07 November 2017 and approval was received from the PCMT dated 20 November 2017 but additional information was requested which was finally provided. The post was was advertised for 12 months
The project managers assumed duties in November and December 2017 respectively and the admin assistant has since been finalized. The incumbent will assume duties on 01 June 2018.

14. Challenges
The challenges experienced in implementing the grant are detailed below:
The confirmation and verification of ownership of the ECDs in terms of the guidelines.
The state of the ECDs in the rural areas for example OR Tambo which require new infrastructure to be constructed as apposed to maintenance.
Implementation of the local economic development is not fully understood by the local service providers.
The local service providers viewed the required CIDB grading within the tender specification document as set too high. This is due to the lack of work opportunities in the construction industry which is not readily available within Alfred Nzo District, Sarah Baartman District and the Buffalo City Municipality.
The employment period of one year for the Project Managers and the Construction Project Manager should be three years and not one year. The capacity and the knowledge acquired is at risk of being lost if the contract is not in line with the guideline.
2018/12/29

15. IMPLEMEMENTATION FOR 2018/19
The official approved list by the Accounting Officer for 2018/2019 for maintenance of the 25 ECDs was approved on the 19 April Letter was sent 23 April 2018 to ECDRPW, that in conjunction with the Project Manager to do the technical assessment and develop bill of quantities. Ownership documents have been requested from the Districts to confirm and verify ownership of the ECD Centres on 27 February 2018.
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16. IMPLEMEMNTATION PLANNED FOR 18/19
DISTRICT
NO. OF CENTRES
ALFRED NZO 3
AMATHOLE
BUFFALO CITY METRO 2
CHRIS HANI
JOE GQABI
NELSON MANDELA METRO 4
OR TAMBO 5
SARAH BAARTMAN
TOTAL 25
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17. IMPLEMEMNTATION OF 18/19 Annual Target 2018/19
Quarterly Targets 2018/19
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Quarter 4 25
Technical assessment and signing of SLAs (25).
Maintenance stage (25).
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18. THANK YOU
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