MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Mossel Bay Municipality, in partnership with the Western Cape Provincial Government, initiated a project to implement electronic building plan submissions.
Business Engineering (BE), the creators of the Collaborator software used in various municipalities across South Africa, were asked to develop an online portal to achieve this goal.
The system went live at Mossel Bay Municipality on 24 July, after many months of close collaboration between BE and the municipality.
For the implementation, a roll-out meeting was held with all professional persons dealing with building control on a regular basis. that was attended by more than 50 representatives from different practices in the area as well as Peter Brown of the South African Institute of Architectural Technologists (SAIAT).
A live demonstration was followed by questions, comments and suggestions.
The portal enables electronic plan submissions to all participating municipalities. Paperless online submissions will thus enable building plan submissions from anywhere in the world through the website: https://westerncapecollab.collaboratoronline.com/SignIn
Both owners and professional persons, registered with the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP) or the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), can register on the portal.
After the initial user registration, the professional practice can also be registered and will enable various team members from the same company to access and make use of the portal.
Further benefits
Other than just submitting building plans, all relevant documentation and forms required for an application can also be found on the portal for download or print.
The application, scrutiny and approval process has been defined on the portal in order for the client and/or architectural professional to keep track of progress.
When a new Building Plan Application is created, the submission will be shown as "Initial".
Once all relevant documentation is uploaded (in PDF-format) the application can be submitted for a pre-submission check – the status changes to "Check", and the documents will be checked by the municipality. If everything is complete, a proforma invoice will be uploaded and the application marked as "Checked". The application will not be deemed to be submitted, though, before proof of payment has been uploaded and payment received, at which point the status will update to "Submitted".
During the scrutiny process, the plan might be circulated to other departments for comment and/or approval.
The status will show "Distributed". If there are outstanding requirements, the standard letter will be emailed to the contact person(s) and the portal will indicate the application is "To Be Amended. If revisions need to be sent to other departments once more, it will update again to "Re-Circulated".
After all the requirement of the National Building Regulations (and other relevant by-laws) have been met, the plan (PDF) will be electronically stamped, recommended and approved before being uploaded to the portal where it will be available for download and distribution as required. The application's status updates for the last time: "Final Outcome".
Mossel Bay Building Control currently runs the electronic system parallel to the hard copy system, but will in due course forgo all hard copy submissions. Our goal is to convert to a paperless environment, when all plans will be submitted, scrutinized, circulated and approved via Collaborator.
Contact Annette Matthee (Plans Examiner, third floor, Montagu Place, 111 Montagu Street) on 044 606 5249 or email her on amatthee@mosselbay.gov.za.
She will assist with all queries and be able to supply a "starter pack", including all the forms, information and presentation and manual.
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