SAICE highlighted "great concern" regarding the timing and the six-month possible total stop of tender-flow. This, it opined, could affect the industry detrimentally at all levels, including the loss of jobs and scarce skills capacity.    

The body recommended that the procurement process be "cleaned up", and the issuing of new tenders must be a simultaneous process.

It said that the information contained in the short media release issued by the DPW did not address some specific issues that have an overall impact on the built infrastructure industry.

Last month the DPW said it had instituted a six-month moratorium on all new tenders while it undertook an internal assessment to improve efficiency.

SAICE stressed a need for further clarity on a number of issues including the proposed plan of action for existing tenders already in the process of adjudication.

"What are the specific issues that the DPW wishes to address? There are several challenges with tendering and procurement that are intentionally and unintentionally associated with corruption. These include procurement process maladministration, insufficient skills, processes and systems in terms of tender documentation, project logistics and management," it said.

The civil engineering group also queried action on what it termed as "poor budget compilations and utilisation, and late payments to service providers".

It also asked for clarity on generally inappropriately qualified staff occupying technical posts, along with a lack of systems and structures (organograms) in government.

"Even without a moratorium, the industry is under severe pressure due to insufficient project roll-out, which resulted in newly employed young engineers receiving either insufficient, or no training, and fresh graduates from universities not finding employment," it said.

Reflecting upon 2011, SAICE said that the first months before the municipal elections saw very few tenders being awarded as awarding tenders was not a priority in such times and decisions were not taken rapidly.

"Bearing this is mind; installing a moratorium for six months immediately after the elections, can only exacerbate the status quo. Adding to this situation, the builders' holidays running from approximately end November to January next year, and new tenders only issued in January/February 2012 at the earliest, with the added awarding process of three to four months still to be accounted for, the first work will come at the earliest in June/July 2012.

"Hence there is effectively a 12-month delay in infrastructure creation and service delivery, which will negatively impact on training, budget spend and job creation, and also on skills enhancement, which is a key focus of national government," the group said.

The civil engineering body also argued that Government's Expanded Public Works Programme and its associated job creation would also be inhibited while tenders/projects were on hold. "It is furthermore important to note that small business will be affected most," it said.

SAICE said it was imperative to continue encouraging the momentum in the industry to ensure that the EPWP and job creation were afforded constant support and continuity, and that small business development contractors, who would be worst hit, were able to survive. "As much as SAICE welcomes the clean-up process, SAICE also recommends that the process should happen without the roll-out of projects being stopped. It is imperative for engineering workflow to be improved rather than inhibited, in order to ensure uninterrupted growth in infrastructure, as well as maintaining jobs while possibly employing more people, as this industry is known to be a high job creator," the group said.

The body added that it welcomed the clean-up initiative. "However, SAICE would want to see bigger stakeholder involvement to help with this positive initiative of the DPW. The suggestion would be to set up a committee to assist the department in helping create a transparent, effective and efficient procurement structure and system. The private sector should be mobilised to participate as well," it concluded.