GOVERNANCE
Procurement – from an engineer’s perspective A significant problem with the delivery of projects is the low capacity of municipalities to establish requirements for what is being built, and to award and administer contracts. Gift Mphefu, chairperson: Gauteng Province Branch at Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA), talks to Kirsten Kelly about public procurement issues.
T
here are a number of challenges that construction firms or consulting engineering companies face when it comes to procurement in the public sector environment, and this threatens the sustainable development of infrastructure in South Africa, as well as the country’s economic growth,” explains Mphefu. Some of these problems are: • non-payment or late payment by public sector clients • requests for proposal issued without adequate scope of works or services (that are impossible to price) • three-year contract duration/restriction imposed by Section 33 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (No. 56 of 2003) that regularly clashes with/disrupts long-term construction contracts
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IMIESA October 2021
• abuse of SA Municipal Supply Chain Management Regulation 32. Procurement has been used by governments all over the world to stimulate economic activity. The South African Constitution has made provision to use procurement as a policy tool to address economic, social and political issues. It is there to protect national industry against foreign competition, improve the competitiveness of industrial sectors and remedy regional disparities. Procurement is also used to achieve social policy objectives to: create jobs, promote fair labour conditions, protect the environment, promote equal opportunities between males and females, and prevent discrimination against disabled people. “However, too often, public entities do not follow the necessary procurement processes
and this often results in unhappy parties, litigation and poor-quality construction, creating a risky environment for engineering consulting firms. It has become clear the current procurement processes do not always support the objectives of the Constitution,” says Mphefu.
Managing risk Mphefu believes that consulting engineers need to be firm with their ‘public clients’. “As engineers, the sustainability of the businesses that we own or work for is paramount. We need to address these problems because if we don’t, many emerging small mediums and micro enterprises will fail.” He suggests that the solution lies in best-practice procurement. Best practice is defined as the technique or methodology that consistently yields successful or optimum outcomes for an organisation. These are best practices for the procurement of engineering consulting services based on an international study: • strategic planning – identify objectives and determine key drivers needed to achieve objectives and facilitate alignment of the tactical and individual actions of the organisation with its long-term objectives • quality management
