Advisory firm KPMG has embarked on a series of engagements with representatives of government and the Presidency to determine how best the private sector can contribute to the ambitions of the National Development Plan (NDP), as well as create a sense of urgency around its immediate implementation.

“The debates about the NDP should be over now. While there are still debates going on, which will probably continue for some time, there is consensus on the majority of the components of the plan and we should now move to implementation,” KPMG associate director Lullu Krugel told a media briefing on Tuesday.

She added that the consultancy would, during dedicated meetings this week, engage Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel on mechanisms through which the private sector could provide support and impetus for the development plan.

Krugel noted that business could predominantly assist government in the prioritisation and sequencing of infrastructure projects under the NDP.

“In the end, we know government will make the final call on which projects are prioritised, but we, as the private sector, need to get involved and help [it] to understand how these projects influence one another,” she said.

Commenting on criticism of the NDP, Krugel asserted that implementation should begin despite the fact that there was not complete consensus on key aspects and various targets.

“At this point, the principles of creating jobs and growing opportunities are more important than getting our targets 100% correct. Just because targets are unachievable right now, doesn’t mean that we should abandon the plan altogether,” she noted.

KPMG global head of international development assistance services Trevor Davies, who had driven private sector involvement in national development plans in other countries, added that, in a democratic context, there would never be total agreement on how such a plan should be implemented.

“To have some sort of plan in place is better than it just being business as usual. Is the NDP a good plan? I don’t know, but it is better than nothing. In any case, the development strategy that countries end up with are never the same as the ones they start with – the point is that you just have to get on with it,” he remarked.

KPMG government advisory services associate director Andile Skosana said that, while there were infrastructure projects currently under way that could, at a stretch, be claimed under the NDP, these should be more formally linked to the overall programme, with a rationalisation behind their prioritisation.

“In the absence of a coherent direction, it is difficult to link these projects to the NDP,” he commented.

Drawing on his observations of development plan successes elsewhere, Davies said that, for development goals to be achieved, there needed to be clear accountability, and the effective sequencing of projects.

“People tend to focus on the projects that are easier and cheaper to do first – the “quick wins” – so that you can show success, but these don’t contribute to longer-term goals. Only once the plan is properly sequenced can it be truly costed,” he commented.

Further, KPMG advised that it would, during its engagements with government this week, recommend an implementation model that has been successful in other countries and which involves the establishment of a small senior task force with full oversight of the programme that reported directly to the Presidency.

Davies said this unit, which would comprise representatives from government and the private sector, would ensure the required high-level involvement and guarantee a certain degree of objectivity.

“Countries that have adopted this sort of approach, rather than working through the normal bureaucracy, have been far more successful in implementing changes,” he noted.

This followed comments by National Planning Commission commissioner Bobby Godsell, in March, when he indicated that government hoped to achieve some degree of coordination between government departments and the private sector in NDP implementation.

“This is a task that cannot be executed by government alone. Co-implementers in the form of government, civil society and the labour sector are key to the success of the plan,” he said.