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<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> for projects and fees, with horrendous outcomes, such as inadequate time and funding for training, inability to grow<br> a business because we cannot afford to employ new younger staff, shrinking turnover and profit levels, etc. One of<br> my real concerns are if our country’s assets are ‘insured’ at sufficient levels with PI.<br><br> I will be the first (and probably not the last) to acknowledge that I will not encourage my children to become<br> engineers. As Mike mentioned, I also do believe our future is bleak from a career point of view.<br><br> But, as old Naas would day, on the other hand, for as long as our main role players are not coming the party<br> with regards to their procurement systems and timeframes (Very tittle work coming from national nor provisional<br> governments, the mining sector has shrank as we know, the parastatals are struggling!), the pie is getting smaller<br> and smaller for everyone the feed from. Now, we are also too scared to repair fees and the application of it, because<br> of the history about the competitions board. I believe we have gone beyond the point of ‘being scared’ and need to<br> plea to ECSA to rescue a dying industry. While we may have enough possible projects for engineers in this country,<br> there are not enough capital to support the projects, nor the number of consultants. I have seen the plea from<br> government during the late 2000’s asking scholars to study engineering….where are those people now when they<br> need to put out work to sustain the increase of graduates by substation margin. Where, I ask you?!<br><br> I do think that Wally and his team has tried very hard to help to ‘open the tap releasing the work’, but this process<br> is very frustrating watching it from the side-lines. For as long as the tap is dripping, it will have the effect we are<br> seeing now in the market.<br><br> These are just a few thoughts….but believe me, the answer is not that easy. 20-25 years ago, engineers were<br> appointed on fair % scales and projects were delivered and feasibilities were acceptable. What changed? Did the<br> number of consultants increase too much that the available pot of fees has diluted beyond reasonable logic? Are we<br> now in a ‘you get what you pay for’ type of arrangement?<br><br> Our backs are against the wall….our youngsters need the support from our senior statesmen to guide us through<br> this challenge!<br><br> Kindest regards,<br><br> Stephan Vermaak PrEng, BEng Civil<br> Technical Director I Professional Engineer (Civil), Aurecon<br><br><br> Response from Michele Rivarola<br> Stephan, I live in East London and a fairly relaxed life nogall even if I am at the office working at this point in time.<br><br> “All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” Unfortunately this is the growing trend in South Africa,<br> in our politics, in our businesses and in our everyday life. The results are too much in our faces to deny them.<br><br> How do we rescue this industry? I don’t really know, perhaps we need to so ask ourselves first; how did we allow it<br> to get where it is and at what stage was the cast. As a prospective retiree while I am proud of this country’s many<br> achievements I am equally embarrassed by its many avoidable failures. I want to look back to my career and say I<br> have done something for others which may be of lasting value, but alas, I am embarrassed by what I leave behind.<br> Not everyone feels the same, others believe that where we are was unavoidable. If that is the case then there is<br> nothing to rescue.<br><br> I have always been vociferously against fee reductions without commensurate reduction in service (and here I talk<br> about quantity and not quality) and my stand is well documented over the years I have been involved with CESA.<br> When the discussions first came about I warned that once the door was allowed to be ajar there was no controlling<br> how much it would be opened by. And so here we are whilst the dam has burst trying to swim upstream; I am sorry<br><br><br><br><br><br><br> 9<br>
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