SMALL businesses who supplied services in parliament say they have been let down by the government's development programme.
They also say they were left in the lurch after an agreement between the national Department of Public Works and the Arcus Facilities Management Solutions (AFMS) ended in November and were still waiting to be paid for services rendered.
Fifteen Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), largely owned by females and the youth, were selected to be part of the department's Expanded Public Works - SMME programme as of October 2015.
In terms of the contract between the department and AFMS, the company was required to utilise the SMMEs in services such as building maintenance, waste management, cleaning and hygiene, landscaping and civils works.
The companies said not even half of the initial R60 million allocated by the department to the programme was used to pay them.
According to one of the companies, Arcvest 4 CC, when the contract between AFMS and the department ended, they were "promised" by some officials that they would not be affected as they were still part of the development programme.
"We started experiencing challenges with the main contractor shortly after the contracts were signed. For months we would sit without being allocated work and were not able to pay staff. We addressed our concerns to the department and after their intervention, the conditions improved slightly," said Gladys Hans, from one of the SMMEs.
In June 2018 the companies wrote to the then Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, voicing concerns about "marginalisation, abuse and subjugation" by AFMS.
In response the department said it took note of the challenges and promised to address "poor performance" on the SMME development with AFMS and said it would also monitor development progress closely.
However, Mavis Manjanja, of another SMME, said nothing "substantial" came out of the intervention in terms of training and development and the little effort that was made to monitor progress by the company was just "box-ticking" exercise.
"Our employees have now been poached by the new company that has taken over. We are now left to sort out labour-related issues,", Manjanja added.
The SMMEs said the programme failed to achieve what it set out to do and the government needed to investigate the reasons if it planned to continue with it.
The Department confirmed that it procured services of two Facilities Management contracts in 2014 for the Parliamentary Precinct, and for the Ministerial houses and Parliamentary Villages and insisted that an SMME programme be implemented with a development of five SMMEs.
The SMMEs were also to be provided with practical experience so that after the programme they would be able to "compete in the market", according to the department.
Department Spokesperson Kgomotso Mathuloe said the objectives of the progamme were "partially achieved" in both contracts.
She accused some of the SMMEs of "putting the cart before the horse", and "focusing on money" instead of going through the development programme.
This, she said, was the reason why the primary objective of the programme was not "fully achieved".
In relation to challenges experienced by the SMMEs in getting work and payments, she said the department had engagements with AFMS to ensure that there was commitment to providing work to the SMMEs and that outstanding payments were made.
The areas of achievement according to Mathuloe included skills training, and execution of projects.
However, she said in terms of the AFMS contract, six of the SMMEs "dropped out" of the skills development programme.
"Two of the nine nine SMMEs are successful and can be able to compete in the market", she said.
She rejected claims related to unfair remunerations and said payments were made according to "agreed scale and quantum".
Mathuloe said the R60 million ring that was fenced for SMMEs was not only for the 15 SMMEs but all SMMEs in the contracts including specialised SMMEs that were part of the contracts.
"It must be noted that the objective of the SMME programme was to develop those SMMEs and provide them with experience so that they can be competitive in the market and not to be a permanent feature in the Department. An opportunity must be provided to other SMMEs that require development and experience. So the department will recruit new SMMEs for the next facilities Management contracts.
The tender for a Facilities Management company is still being finalised by the department and will be put out soon. One of the requirements of the tender will be the requirement to work with SMMEs.
AFMS did not respond to questions sent.