At the inaugural Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium of SA, held in June 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa has received \u201cfirm commitment\u201d for some of the country\u2019s planned infrastructure projects. To ensure that these multibillion Rand projects become a springboard for economic recovery, financial specialists in the built environment are needed on all infrastructure projects, says Larry Feinberg, Executive Director of the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn order to ensure that the proposed construction projects are completedwithin deadlineand within budget there is no room left for cost overruns and squandered budgets,\u201d warns Feinberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInfrastructure development is at the center of South Africa\u2019s stimulus plan,\u201d says Feinberg.\u201cWith 276projects being proposed,billions of Rands in borrowed finance the country\u2019s economic recovery at stake,government will need to take on new levels of cost control and financial management.\u201d Quantity Surveyors are the financial, contractual and procurement experts in the built environment. They work with clients \u2013 in this case the client is government \u2013 and the design team to createthe program budget and procurement strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quantity Surveyors alsoplay a crucial role in preventing fraud and corruption by doing do tender analysis and evaluation andcontract management.They also conduct regular site evaluations to make sure that all the agreed work is completedbefore authorizing progress payments to contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDespite this, the appointment of a Quantity Surveyor has so far not been included inthe default process at the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI),\u201d says Feinberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis needs to change for these new infrastructure projects that are intended to kickstart the post-COVID economy.\u201d While some decision-makers within the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) do insist on employing Quantity Surveyors on their projects, the same department is also notoriously understaffed in this role.The backlog of Professionally Registered Quantity Surveyors as well as the role of the Quantity Surveyor being executed by other role playerswithin the built environment are further exacerbating the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quantity Surveying is a specialised skill that requires a BSc degree or a national diploma in Quantity Surveying. After graduating the Quantity Surveyor needs to work towards becoming Professionally Registered. They can only become a Professional Quantity Surveyor (PrQS) once they candemonstrate that theyhas the competence and accountability that is needed to financially manage large,complex construction projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are simply not enough Quantity Surveyors employed at the Department of Public Works, municipalities and other public offices involved in infrastructure expenditure,\u201d says Feinberg.\u201dThesmall amount of professional QS\u2019s that actually are employed in the Department are simply overwhelmed at having to oversee the entire Department\u2019s portfolio of immovable assets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA single professional Quantity Surveyor is often responsible for more than 10 projects,and with the value of some these projects well into the billions of rands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not employing additional experienced, registered Quantity Surveyorswill increase the government\u2019s risk of substantial delays and cost overruns on infrastructure projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPairing experienced andregistered professional Quantity Surveyors with younger candidate Quantity Surveyors will ensure that the desired skills transfer occurs during the construction of the new infrastructure projects. It would also help to bridge the gap created by the backlog of Professionally Registered Quantity Surveyors as well as serve the transformation and skills development goals of government,\u201d says Feinberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAppointing Quantity Surveyors will mitigate financial risk, ensure that the required infrastructure is developed based on sound engineering principles and quality construction, and that the expenditure is accurately accounted for, wisely spent, and that public funds are protected,\u201d says Feinberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the inaugural Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium of SA, held in June 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa has received \u201cfirm commitment\u201d for some of the country\u2019s planned infrastructure projects. To ensure that these multibillion Rand projects become a springboard for economic recovery, financial specialists in the built environment are needed on all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainability-handbook.alive2green.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}