The Herald Online **News**
A CRITICAL shortage of engineers in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is severely hampering the execution of projects.
Infrastructure and engineering business unit manager Ali Said said yesterday there was a critical shortage of engineers in his department, and even if they advertised positions they did not get responses.
“The rapid decline in the number of officials to manage this unit‘s capital projects is reaching catastrophic proportions. A case in point is the design unit, which now has no personnel after losing the last of its staff in December.”
He said the pivotal role of approving designs submitted by consultants could no longer be done by the municipality and outsourcing was the only option.
Said said the private sector was experiencing the same constraints in obtaining and retaining skilled engineering staff. With major projects such as the 2010 World Cup and Coega making rapid progress, the demand on consultants and contractors would increase even more.
“This metro will have to take serious consideration of the capacity factor, both internal and external, when preparing budgets for future years,” he said.
The meeting was discussing progress made by the business unit on its 2006/2007 capital budget up to December last year. The new municipal financial year begins in July and the fear is that funds will be carried over to the next financial year even though there are priority projects which need urgent implementation.
Of its budget allocation of R749-million, the business unit had by December 20 spent R96-million, about 13 per cent. “Considering 50% of the financial year has passed, 13% is an alarmingly low figure,” said Said. Two options discussed at a recent workshop had been to either hire retired engineers or outsource work to service providers.
Councillor Terry Herbst said: “I know the shortage of engineers is a worldwide phenomenon, but what are we doing to remedy the situation? You cannot run such an essential department without staff,” he said.