In his response to the question Should the process of procuring infrastructure projects be outsourced? Prince Lufu in his hardhatOPINION said "I think that is indeed a good idea especially if they outsource it to the correct people. By correct people, I mean professionally registered individuals. In addition, this will mean regulatory bodies will need to beef up their capacity to vet and approve registration. I am talking of bodies such as SACPCMP,CIOB,CBE SAQS, RICS SACE et al."
Chartered accountants, doctors, lawyers and engineers all have regulatory bodies with strict codes of conduct. It is about time the barriers of entry into the built environment be lifted and the standards upheld for the benefit of the population who have proven track records and have everything at stake should they set a foot wrong and a malpractice due to corrupt and untoward activities is carried out on them.
With that said, I feel that the government is doing little to develop built environment graduates into professionals as well entrepreneurs. That should be their first point of call when rolling out emerging contractor programmes. There are too many chance takers with no passion for the process coming in with a mentality of making a quick buck and running away afterwards when the heat gets too much in the proverbial kitchen to try their hand at something else
The challenge is government departments truth be told seem not to be attracting the best and brightest resulting in major capacity issues. Most of the said best and brightest are found gravitating towards the private sector where they will gain real experience and that is hard currency in any language. The human resources sections should be re-evaluated with regards to specific briefs on the candidates they are tasked to recruit
Furthermore in the private sector, with the demand for professional registration rising (which as afore mentioned at the end of the day has strict codes of conduct which if not adhered to have lasting if not permanent repercussions) the quality of service is bound to therefore improve . That has been lacking within the government structure often typified by a laqadasic internal discipline structures with perpetrators of corruption simply resigning and the case against them dropped and no further action taken when it is required. There is no will from superiors and the rot likely runs higher up and will have severe implications on them if a true and thorough investigation arises
The amount of money that is wasted and lost at the expense of the taxpayer and detriment of the public good is thus irrecoverable,
The challenge now in the current economic downturn where the private investment environment is down and out those skills are heading out and away from our shores resulting in massive brain drain. That does not help our cause at all.
I can cite DoH and DoE as two departments which are woefully under capitated resulting in overburdening of DPW who are custodians of the structures at the end of the day. DPW is seeing these weaknesses and has sterling candidacy programmes in place to ensure that capacity requirements are fulfilled. In my direct exposure to them from 2015 to 2020, I can personally attest to a solid programme which I encountered when dealing with the DPW
Also read: OPINION: Health and Safety in the Construction Industry
With that said, I also feel that at ministerial level, the government needs to start appointing specialists in fields in order to get maximum benefit. Our built environment would do very well if a person from our professional fold was to be appointed as minister as the level of comprehension of succinct and pertinent factors will not need to be explained by functionaries at director general level. I feel it will lead to a better streamlining of operations and effective roll out of beneficial programmes such as say a young professionals and young artisans programme dovetailed with DoBE.
The creation of employment will be based on solid advice of how government can create feasible employment during down turn times with massive public works programmes and parallel solid maintenance operations which demand professionals and artisans alike
That am sure would result in closing a very yawningly large gap in skills shortages that we are currently experiencing.
This Hardhat Opinion was written by Prince Lufu a Senior Construction Professional
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Gundo Maswime a Senior Built Environment Professional in Academia responded :
ReplyDeleteI would differ sharply with Prince Lufu on the idea that procurement should be left to the built environment professionals only. I would rather say, the bulk of the weight in decision making should be given to built environment professionals as product experts. I have 3 reasons for this.
1. Until year 2001, many provincial departments had fully outsourced procurement to built environment professionals "in the private sector". The quantum of corruption was very high and it was also being done in a way that undermined transformation efforts. So, the private sector is not any less corrupt than the public sector.
2. If this responsibly is left to the public sector built environment professionals, it should be noted that the efforts to use procurement as a transformative and redistributive strategy may be compromised. Also noting that there is undue influence from within and without the state entities on these professionals that compromises their judgement.
3. Many municipalities and government departments have no engineers in their employ. Amongs those that have, there could be one technogist bearing the full responsibility of procurement. The idea of procurement is to make collective decisions that are also technically viable. If one technical person makes the procurement decision, there is a risk or overreach and exposure to political persecution immediately.
The solution it to have a committee of mostly built environment professionals presiding over the selection process. These must be supported by Supply chain and legal input on specific and relevant aspects.
Gundo Maswime,
ReplyDeleteI see where we differ in opinion in point 1 and 2 especially in point 1 where you have gone back into a historical pattern that really left alot of mouths with sour tastes
I am well advised pretty much same thing happened about a decade ago with the power stations by transformed elements....
We seem to have some concurrence in point 2 as I concur by alluding to a lack of strict guidelines with people often resigning and corruption cases falling away. Add to that a major reluctance of senior officials to investigate as they are likely to be involved too
In point 3 we seem to agree as I touch on Govt department HR sections needing to re-evaluate their recruitment strategy. I also cite a classical example of DPW who have a wonderful candidacy programme which is closing gaps steadily.
Otherwise, thank you for the input and critique especially in point 1. That was some excellent insight