Consulting Engineers SA (Cesa) has lashed out at the government for a lack of leadership, which it claims is largely responsible for hindering infrastructure development.
Graham Pirie, Cesa’s chief executive, said yesterday that there was a lack of infrastructure development because projects were not getting off the ground. Tender processes were taking up to three years to materialise, largely because of a lack of leadership within government organisations.
Pirie stressed that infrastructure projects needed to become less political as such interference was fundamentally hindering the ability of companies to successfully complete projects at all levels.
He also expressed concern about the impact on infrastructure development of high numbers of chief executives and senior managers at state entities who were suspended because of alleged corruption.
There was “a grave lack of general engineering skill” at both provincial and municipal government level.
“The internal staff are not equipped to produce clear terms of references or even assess the final tenders due to lack of experience. This causes backlogs in the project process and spills over to the overall monitoring of deliverables.”
But Pirie said the lack of experience was not the only problem, adding the inconsistency in management and top leadership was also hindering infrastructure development.
A significant number of chief executives, director-generals and top management within government organisations were under suspension because of alleged corruption, he said. This had led to top posts being under custodianship and the substitute person simply “gate keeps” the position with absolutely no decision making undertaken during that time.
“It is time to sort out the corruption and improve the process of procurement in the built environment. The private sector has a great deal of skill and experience and should be encouraged to assist government,” he said.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) reported earlier this month that national government departments had spent a total of R52 million on salaries for 1 559 employees who had been placed on precautionary suspension in the 2010/11 financial year.
The PSC also noted general non compliance with the prescribed 60-day period to institute disciplinary hearings.
In March, a reply to a DA parliamentary question revealed the average period to finalise disciplinary cases involving precautionary suspensions was 243 days for national departments and 444 days for provinces.
Kobus Marais, the DA’s spokesman on public service and administration, said earlier this month that this could not be allowed to continue, adding that suspensions not only strained the public purse but had a negative impact on service delivery.
Pirie said Cesa was also concerned about the resignations of chief executives and senior staff from various parastatals and government departments, coupled with the lack of a clear succession plan or the announcement of replacements.
This resulted in uncertainty for their client market, which was largely the public and their own staff, who became demoralised and unsettled, he said.
When the government and the private sector worked together, Pirie said, a valuable platform was created that grew the economy.
He invited the government to engage with Cesa to find solutions to these problems so that together they could “make a better life for all”.