With Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan calling for greater public–private partnerships, Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa) on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to working with government to accelerate infrastructure development plans for the next three years.
During his 2016 Budget Speech on Wednesday, Gordhan highlighted ambitions of addressing institutional and regulatory barriers to business investment and growth, while announcing plans to inject R865.
4-billion into infrastructure projects such as housing, roads, rail, public transport, water and electricity to maintain its public infrastructure investment commitments over the next three years.
Cesa commented that inefficiencies in the way public-sector infrastructure projects were implemented cost South Africa billions of rands each year – funds which could have increased the potential infrastructure investment pool.
“These shortfalls include lack of planning, inappropriate procurement approaches, lack of project management capacity and capability, and a lack of other desired technical skills in the public sector,” the firm said in a statement.
However, the multiyear appropriations highlighted in the Budget were welcomed by Cesa.
