Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) introduced its 2014 theme to the media this morning: sustaining consulting engineering key to growing the economy.

Naren Bhojaram, CESA’s past president identified five key sustainabilityfactors in 2013: education, economic and political certainty, job creation,eradication of corruption, and responsible development. These coincide well with National Development Plan (NDP).

CESA 2014 president Abe Thela notes the following themes for next 12 months: address socio-economic context in consulting engineering costs, touch on elements of the NDP pertaining to infrastructure and the role of consulting engineering, and aid government in the realisation of the NDP objectives.

Several concerns were identified by Thela. These include the further delays of the NDP due to upcoming elections, lack of professional guidance in government procurement decisions, education and municipal maintenance.

CESA is actively engaging with government through structures such as the Department of Public Works. Together they have created the Building Professionals organisation. This aims to practically drive relevant elements of the NDP, ensure educational interventions at secondary and tertiary level, and bring to government attention the key challenges posed to consulting engineers by current government practices and procedures. Long delays in payment for works done, delays in investment in infrastructure and the exclusion of quality from strategic procurement decisions pose a real threat to the industry.

CESA CEO Lefadi Makibinyane went to great lengths to emphasise that CESA and the private sector generally cannot afford to wait for government action. Where possible the private sector must push for progress and ensure that investment takes place. Current economic indicators suggest quite clearly that foreign investment into SA is severely hampered by our current infrastructure backlog.

“We make a clarion call to Government to address the challenges we have identified to ensure the development of the consulting engineering industry which itself underpins the success of the NDP,” Abe Thela told Infrastructure News.

KPMG estimates an infrastructure spending gap of R6.5 trillion between current spending and the NDP targets of 10% of GDP. CESA states that a clearer project pipeline, increased standardisation of deal structures, policy stability, and better information about performance of projects at their various stages could all combine to encourage infrastructure investment. Government also needs to address regulatory constraints that currently block potential investment.

“CESA is ready to engage and partner with Government to address these challenges. The organisation has been lobbying government for years on these issues and more recently with National Treasury who are currently reviewing procurement regulations as a result of CESA’s engagement with them,” concluded Thela.