Our Immediate Past Chairperson of the YPF, also a Civil Engineer at Bosch Projects, Uzair Osman presented at the recent CESA Infrastructure Indaba, where he unpacked the research into the extent and impact of late payments in the sector.  

A survey was conducted with a diverse sample of consulting engineering firms. The results indicated that there was debt, 20-40% of turnover. The smaller the company, the higher the debt to turnover ratio. Debt had been on average an estimate of 60 days old but significant debt had existed greater than 90 days and for some more than a year. The debt predominantly appeared to be from public clients. The estimated cost of debt for 40% respondents was more than a million rand per annum.  

He explained that there were 8% of companies that experienced more than R10 million per annum. Impacts affected employees the worst when it came to training and employment. Impacts also seemed to really affect client relationships. “It was very apparent in the responses that the smaller the company is, the greater the impact. The most effective resolution would be to create awareness and advocate for clients to pay within time considering the detrimental effect, it would have on the economy as a whole,” Osman explained.