Infrastructure projects fail when procurement is pursued administratively rather than strategically

An analysis of public infrastructure delivery in South Africa, prepared for consideration by the National Planning Commission (NPC), identifies the quality of procurement and client-delivery management as the main differentiators between those projects that have succeeded in recent years and those that have failed. Prepared by engineers Dr Ron Watermeyer and Dr Sean Phillips the analysis shows that, when a public-sector client adopts a strategic, rather than an administrative, stance to the design, procurement and implementation of infrastructure projects, value for money is typically secured.