Budget 2017: Go straight to the top of the class! Procurement watchdog halves cost of building schools

How do you halve the cost of building a new school? Ask Kenneth Brown‚ the government’s chief procurement officer.

Delivering his budget on Wednesday‚ Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the bill for a 7‚500m² school had been cut from R70-million to R34-million after discussions between Brown’s office and the Department of Basic Education on “cost-effective standards for building design”.

• Budget 2017: Gordhan announces hard-hitting personal tax increasesFinance Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced hard-hitting increases in personal income tax of R16.5bn for 2017-18‚ as economic growth stutters and revenue collection falls short of expectations. 

Other savings achieved by Brown’s office included:

• R675-million in 2016/17 on cellphones and vehicle contracts. “The vehicle contract alone is expected to save the state between R1-billion and R1.5-billion per year over the medium term‚” said Gordhan.

• Between R2-billion and R3-billion on leasing property.

• R2.5-billion over the next three years in the government’s 10 largest information and communication technology contracts.

Gordhan said public procurement would total about R1.5-trillion over the next three years. A draft Public Procurement Bill to be published shortly would establish a single procurement authority.

• Graduates spared from tax - Finance Minister says ‘We’ve done the best we can for universities’Treasury appears to have put the nail in the coffin of a graduate tax‚ saying the funds raised would not be nearly enough to cover the running costs of South African universities. 

“The central supplier database is now fully operational. It has made doing business with the state much easier and cost effective. It enables government to know who it is doing business with and to use technology to reduce opportunities for fraud and corruption. Already‚ large numbers of transactions have been identified for further investigation‚” said Gordhan.

• Budget 2017: Rich to bear the brunt of the tax increasesThe wealthiest South Africans will pick up the tab for the South African Revenue Service's inability to outstrip economic growth in revenue collection. 

These included:

• Public service employees who appear to be doing business with the state.

• Supply agreements reflecting the identity numbers of dead people.

• Payments to bank accounts other than those of the relevant suppliers.

“In some cases we will find that there are legitimate explanations. But where fraud or corruption is identified‚ action must be taken‚” said Gordhan. “The law will catch up with you.”

-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE