Housing in Southern Africa February 2016

Infrastructure & Mixed Use

MBA North’s new CHS-IT system MasterBuildersAssociationNorth has developed a Construction Health and Safety Information Technological (CHS-IT) system alignedtotherequirementsof the government’s new Construction Regulations.

that all stakeholdersmust be involved in the implementation, maintenance, monitoring and enforcement of the Construction Regulations’ legislative requirements. This includes legal ap- pointments, regular health and safety audits, medical certificate of fitness for all employees, and the Construc- tion Work Permit and Construction Notification. Alf these must be in place before any construction work can start.” At the 2015 Department of Labour Conference, the Department’s Chief Inspector, Tibor Szana, appealed to the building industry to reverse the ‘intolerable loss of life’ in the industry. The challenge was to step up inspec- tion and enforcements. With this in mind, MBA North developed the CHS-IT system. “The system is a proactive online solution to help implement, monitor and en- force the Construction Regulations in

real-time, across multiple construc- tion sites, conveniently from any smart device or personal computer,” says Smith. Benefits of the system include ease of use, time-saving, accessible from any ‘smart’ device, real-timemonitor- ing and reporting, recording of health and safety audit information, storage of health and safety documentation, automated audit reports, and moni- toring of contractor compliance in real-time. The CHS-IT system also has an online automatedwork permit and constructionnotification submis- sion, saving time and money. “It is a secure Cloud-based system making accessibility to the informa- tion quick and easy. When internet connectivity is poor or unavailable, informationwill be stored in the CHS- IT App and automatically upload- ed when connectivity is restored,” Smith adds. ■

L ea Smith, Past President of MBA North, who is the driving force behind the new system announced that the new product will be launched this year. “Under the newConstruction Reg- ulations, more stringent health and safety obligations have been placed on a wide range of parties involved in construction work. This includes the client, sub-contractor, designer and principal contractor,” says Smith. “The regulations clearly specify

November 2015