Cape Town - The Department of Public Works is looking at recruiting retired professionals such as quantity surveyors, auditors or engineers to advise municipalities.
"Many times the problem is around the specialised skills that are required," said Minister of Public Works Geoff Doidge, briefing the media yesterday during a workshop on the government's Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
He said India's public works department employed some 7 000 professionals, but that his department didn't employ professionals in such a large number.
Doidge said his department had also been assisting professional councils to discuss how to get professionals involved in assisting local governments.
In a bid to boost job creation, the government introduced an incentive in the form of a wage grant in April 2009, to those organisations and departments that exceeded employment targets.
A total of R4.1 billion has been allocated to the department from 2009 to 2011 financial years to pay the incentive to public bodies like provincial departments and municipalities.
In the last financial year, a figure of R230m was paid out in incentives, which Doidge noted was "not a good figure".
He believed the programme could be boosted by getting all 283 municipalities involved and added that the department would embark on roadshows to all provinces and that targets for each provinces would be set.
The incentive translates to R50 per person for every full-time equivalent, said Ignatius Arroyo, the department's chief director of infrastructure.
The department defines one full-time equivalent year as 230 working days.
Ismail Akhalwaya the department's chief director of partnership support for the EPWP said the government planned to create 4.5 million work opportunities or the equivalent of 2 million full time jobs, between 2009 and 2014.
While the first phase achieved a target of 1 million work opportunities a year ahead of schedule, the government aimed to scale up the programme in the second phase to contribute significantly to halving unemployment by 2014.
Akhalwaya, who cautioned that the EPWP would not replace those employees under Basic Conditions of Employment, said the programme was one of a number of strategies the government employed in fighting poverty, with others being the use of social grants, skills development and the developing an enabling environment for small businesses.
He said those employed under the Expanded Public Works Programme might be able to stay in the programme indefinitely if the Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana approved the dropping of a clause specifying those employed in EPWP contracts had to exit after two years.
Akhalwaya said the matter had been to Nedlac and was now waiting to be signed off before going to the Minister of Labour for approval.
He said a further entitlement for training in all programmes under the EPWP, might also be dropped.
Akhalwaya said training targets were often not achieved, because of complexity of training and the problem that trainers were not represented in regions across the country.
However he said where training was essential to the performance of certain work, as in fighting fire or clearing alien bush, it would continue.
In other cases, such as for example six-month road maintenance projects, on-the-job training would be suitable
