To overcome corruption in the South African and African construction sectors, governments must work closely with key role-players to ensure there is adequate capacity in the public sector to manage procurement processes and create a regulatory environment for the delivery of infrastructure projects, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi said on Friday.

“We have to deal with corrupt officials working with corrupt businessmen to siphon off public funds,” he urged at the Council for the Built Environment’s (CBE’s) Indaba, in Boksburg, while adding that there needed to be a fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective procurement regime that limited procurement costs.

Corruption had been rife in South Africa’s construction sector, with the country’s Competition Commission’s fast-track settlement for firms in the sector having resulting in more than 20 companies disclosing information pertaining to bid-rigging and collusion, to date, which involved more than 130 projects.

Nxesi further noted that Africa would be a major point of interest in terms of infrastructure development in future, as the continent had recently been ranked the world’s second-fastest growing economy and analysts were projecting 5.3% growth this year.

However, the Minister pointed out that, for Africa to grow and develop at the rate that many analysts were predicting, strong regional economic and social ties in the public and private sectors would be required.

He further indicated that built environment professionals on the continent would play a key role in driving infrastructure investment through their skills and competence in the planning, design, procurement, construction, maintenance and decommissioning of infrastructure.

South Africa currently had about 56 075 registered professionals and candidates across these six specialisations in the profession and a significant unregistered component, which provided a critical resource and a base for driving continental infrastructure development, the Minister put forward.

“We have seen that the services of South African built environment professionals are in high demand for infrastructure projects across the continent. One of our aims must be to support and promote contracting and built environment professional skills and services across the continent,” Nxesi noted.

He stated that these efforts must include measures to streamline and align the qualification requirements of built environment professional across the continent to ease regulatory burdens and to facilitate the easier exchange of built environment professional services.

“A quantity surveyor or engineer who may have qualified in Kenya or Ghana must be able to work on big infrastructure projects in Zambia or South Africa without having to go through too much red tape to obtain the necessary permits. We need these skills everywhere on the continent. Where we have them, we must use them and where we do not, we must provide training,” the Minister asserted.

He added that the successful delivery of infrastructure projects would depend on the availability of skills. This places the spotlight on regulatory bodies such as the CBE, other professional councils and their counterparts in the African continent.

Nxesi indicated that focused training plans to increase the numbers of skilled professionals on the continent would also have to be developed.

“We do not have to depend on skills from Europe for our projects…The reliance on the West for our growth is no longer an option. Africans must determine their own growth path.”

The Minister pointed out that priority would also have to be given to ensuring sound governance of thebuilt environment profession and to promoting standards of training and development to protect the interests of the public and maintain a sustainable construction sector.