City of Tshwane saves millions by insourcing construction services
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In a bid to save the City of Tshwane millions of rand, the multiparty Mayoral Committee has approved a proposal mandating all city construction projects to utilise the city's internal professional services, which are part of the Physical Development Services section within the Department of Economic Development and Spatial Planning.
'The insourcing of these services for new building design projects, alterations, additions, and as-built documentation has already begun to save the City of Tshwane millions of rand in fees that would otherwise have been outsourced,' Councillor Sarah Mabotsa said.
She added that the Physical Development Services of the Department of Economic Development and Spatial Planning is staffed by qualified architectural professionals, quantity surveyors, and building works inspectors. They are equipped to manage projects from inception through to completion.
She explained that until now, some city departments have contracted these services externally, resulting in high consultant costs for the city and often leading to inconsistent quality and misalignment with city-wide standards.
'By insourcing these services, the City of Tshwane will reduce expenditure and also ensure standardised project quality and protect municipal interests,' Mabotsa said.
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According to her, savings of about 10% to 20% on external consulting fees are typically achieved on smaller projects of up to R500,000 in value, and on larger projects (of R20 million or more), savings are usually between 7% and 15% of the project cost.
'This insourcing has already saved the city R16.6 million on recent projects. The initiative to mandate insourcing of these services going forward will save the city many more millions,' she said.
For the projects of the Stinkwater Social Development Centre (a R51 million project), Gazankulu Clinic (a R26.5 million project), Rayton Clinic (a R24 million project) and the Soshanguve Clinic (a R18.5 million project), architect fees of R3.6 million, R1.9 million, R1.7 million and R1.5 million were saved on each project respectively.
Other projects under way or in planning, which the Physical Development Services section is assisting with, like the R50 million Mabopane Social Development Service and R61 million Lusaka Clinic, will see savings in architectural fees of R3.5 million and R4.4 million respectively.
'Doing our work faster and at less cost to ratepayers means that we reduce our spending and can do more with our available budgets,' Mabotsa said.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
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