Property Management Policy

Using the Property Management Handbook

The first issue of the Handbook went live on 1 July 2007 and a hard copy sent to schools. All sections of the Handbook can be viewed online and are available to download at the bottom of this page.

All board members should read Section 1 of the Handbook [PDF v1.6, 378kb] and at least one board member should become familiar with the whole Handbook. This will ensure that all the requirements for managing school property are clearly understood and able to be conveyed to the whole board when needed.

Updates

7 May 2009

As an economic stimulus, the Government has given priority to capital spending on school property. This stimulus includes bringing forward a number of projects and programmes.

To assist schools with getting their capital works projects underway as soon as possible the Ministry of Education is reviewing its project management processes, as contained in the Handbook, with the first range of new initiatives introduced from 7 May 2009.

These initiatives are as follows.

• The Ministry can advance planning funding for all projects over $100,000 (the previous limit was $500,000) once advice of an approved budget is received. The threshold for that advance has increased from 5 percent to 10 percent. This change will enable schools to make faster progress with projects, particularly those included in the School Property Guide Deficiencies and Replacement Buildings programmes. Payment of planning fees is subject to a “project plan” being agreed to by the board, its project manager and the Ministry in accordance with its performance targets.
• The procurement threshold for seeking competitive tenders on GETS (Section 5.2.6 refers) has increased from $50,000 to $100,000 and the simpler quotation process for easily specified items can now be used for projects up to a value of $100,000 (Section 5.2.9 refers).
• The threshold for the one step reimbursement process has increased from $50,000 to $100,000.
• Existing project manager contracts can now to be extended to include new project(s) if the subsequent project is less than $25,000 and is lower than the original project value.
• Rural schools may seek a change of their 5-year agreement (5YA) re-sign date if they are part of a formal school cluster that has been established to collectively employ project managers

These changes in thresholds have been incorporated in Issue 3 of the project management forms.

30 May 2008

A web-based update of the Handbook was released with six changes. These are available to download from our Property Management Handbook Updates section.

Seeking feedback

Let us know what you think of any features of the Handbook. Your feedback will help us refine and improve future issues. Email your comments to property.help@minedu.govt.nz [no spam].