POOR PLANNING
Treasury needs unit to drive infrastructure, engineers say
The lack of a directorate for infrastructure within the National Treasury had resulted in a dearth of skills generation and a social imbalance in SA, Consulting Engineers SA (Cesa) said on Tuesday. This is despite an injection of more than R300bn a year by both the private and public sectors on major construction projects, or about R450bn if building works are included. The professional engineering body said state procurement "lies at the heart" of many of the blockages in infrastructure spending. This meant the Treasury was "just guessing at the end goals" of SA’s R4-trillion national infrastructure planning programme over 15 years. "Compliance is by box ticking and is prone to fraud," Neresh Pather, Cesa’s newly elected president, said on Tuesday at the organisation’s annual media briefing in Johannesburg. New leadership was needed in SA to tackle corruption, state capture and poor governance. "Silence has become the new norm of society," Pather said. He said Cesa would be more vo...
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