While delivering significant savings on building procurement, construction management (CM) continues to demonstrate its value as a means of empowering small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the construction industry.

So says Adam Smith, CE of specialist CM company ASA Construction Services, who notes that, since 1997, the company has let an average of 70 percent (by value) of the available work packages on all its projects to emerging contractors and previously disadvantaged building professionals.

"That we believe, is an outstanding achievement, in the light of the fact that the standard empowerment objective is 25 percent of contract value ­ and considering the fact that we also provide on-site managerial training to enable SMMEs to compete for further work once our projects have been completed."

On one recent project, the construction of a high-tech distribution facility airside at the Johannesburg International Airport, ASA was successful in letting 73 percent of the professional work, and 58 percent of works contracts, to SMMEs.

And on a current project, the reconstruction of four East Rand railway stations, more than 80 percent of the construction work packages awarded to date have gone to SMMEs ­ and more specifically, to contractors from the local community.

"These," says Intersite¹s Paul Gange, "are exactly the kind of results we were looking for when we decided to go the CM route on this project, instead of using the traditional procurement method of appointing a main contractor with subcontractors."

CM involves breaking the overall project up into work packages, each of which can be handled by an independent small contractor. Suitably skilled contractors are then sourced from the local community and assisted to tender for the available work.

"What is more," says Smith, "our empowerment process ensures that clients are never exposed to additional risk as a result of apportioning work to SMMEs. The contract at the airport, for example, was completed within budget and without the loss of a single man-day due to injury on site.

"Such results, of course, encourage clients to participate in further empowerment initiatives ­ and create even more opportunities for SMMEs.

"Meanwhile, our quality control systems have already assisted many works contractors with SMMEs to raise their standards and eliminate service problems. Combined with our managerial training, this really enables them to compete comfortably, and profitably, with more established contractors."

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