Construction sector scorecard

The codes of good practice on broad-based black economic empowerment for the construction sector were promulgated in June 2009 after intensive and extensive consultation between government and the industry.

As a sector, we believe the implementation of the construction charter with its attendant codes of good practice will address inequalities in the sector, unlock potential and enhance growth – for the ultimate benefit of the entire South African nation.

The code provides a framework for the construction sector to address broad-based transformation, enhance capacity and increase productivity to meet global best practice standards. Its implementation will be monitored by the construction charter council, which will act with executive capacity and provide the necessary links to government institutions.

Scorecard

		Targets as per the code
Indicator		Year 0 – 4	Year 5 – 7	Actual 2009	Progress
Ownership
Voting rights	Exercisable voting rights in hands of black people	27,5%	30%	31,44%	The group is in the process of investigating proposals for prospective shareholders.
	Exercisable voting rights in hands of black women	10%	10%	0,38%
Economic interest	Of black people	27,5%	30%	31,44%
	Of black women	10%		0,38%
	Of black natural people
	contractors	10%		0%
	built environment professionals (BEPs)	5%
	black designated groups
	black participants in employee ownership schemes
	black beneficiaries of broad-based ownership schemes
	black participants in co-operatives
Management control
Board participation	Exercisable voting rights of black board members	40%	40%	55,11%	The group will maintain its level of black board members. Developing or employing black senior top management is more challenging. The group is addressing this issue through the development of internal staff through management development programmes and through active recruitment of suitable candidates. This process is expected to take some time however.
Top management	Black senior top management	25%	40%	8,23%
Employment equity
Contractors	Black employees in senior management	35%	60%	6,48%	Through internal development programmes the group is aiming to fast-track the progress of identified candidates. Recruitment policies take cognisance of these requirements and the group is comfortable with the steady progress being made.
	Black employees in middle management	45%	75%	19,43%
	Black employees in junior management	68%	80%	44,25%
	Black disabled employees	2%	3%	0%
Skills development
Expenditure	On all employees as percentage of leviable amount	1,5%	1,5%	2,81%	The group has made significant progress in this category and will look to maintain and improve these levels. The group recently completed construction of a state-of-the art training facility at its head office building to facilitate internal training and development. The group is currently putting an approved and verified mentorship programme in place.
	Black employees	70%	70%	51,3%
	Black employees in management categories	25%	25%	11,43%
Learnerships	Number of learners (learnerships, category B, C and D programmes) as percentage of total employees	2,5%	2,5%	3,04%
	Black participants in learnerships	70%	70%	80,33%
	Black people with disabilities in learnerships	5%	5%	0%
Bursaries	Scholarship/bursary expenditure on black students (of leviable amount)	0,3%	0,3%	0,34%
Mentorship	Implementation of approved and verified programme			No
Preferential procurement
BBBEE procurement	% of total procurement	50%	70%	39,63%	The group maintains a database of approved suppliers and subcontractors and regularly updates its records with regard their BEE status. As empowerment throughout the industry improves, the group expects these levels to improve. Of key importance is ensuring that suppliers and subcontractors are obtaining their BEE certification.
	% from qualifying small enterprises or exempted micro enterprises	10%	15%	12,96%
	% from suppliers that are 50% black-owned	9%	12%	10,36%
	suppliers that are 30% black women-owned	6%	8%	2,26%
Enterprise development
Enterprise development programme	Compliance with requirements and guidelines for enterprise development programme				The group scores well in this category and has implemented further measures to ensure this is maintained. The group is in the process of increasing the number of enterprise development relationships it currently has.
Contributions	Average annual value as a % of net profit after tax/leviable amount	3%	3%	>3%
Socio-economic development
	Average annual value as a % of net profit after tax/leviable amount	1%	1%	1,01%	A committee has been formed to ensure that the minimum requirement in this category is met each year. Certain identified organisations are supported on an ongoing basis.

Scope of report

Basil Read’s 2009 annual report includes the group’s sustainable development performance, integrating our economic, social and environmental results for the year for a group-wide understanding. It also sets out the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Although the group is 57 years old, it has expanded at an unprecedented pace in the past five years, both organically and acquisitively. This makes data comparability quite challenging in some areas. Throughout these processes, however, the group’s earlier adoption of triple bottom-line reporting has remained a cornerstone of our commitment to sustainable development and of our determination to entrench global best practices in all operations. Basil Read therefore reports against the 2006 guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (G3), and the content of this report has been mostly aligned with GRI beginner level C ahead of the formal declaration of an application level in the next financial year.