Governance of public investment projects has faced size and complexity problems. Misfires from projects, disappointment that arise from project effects as well as inability to get the best possible value from public money spending are the major challenges, so said scholar in the field.
Asmamaw Tadege is an Associate Professor of Project Management, Faculty of Science and Technology in Norwegian University of Life Science. He said that Ethiopia has a small economy, rapid population growth and high public service demand.
Though large investment projects have become the preferred delivery model for goods and services, there are benefit shortfalls, high cost overrun, delay, corruption, and among others.
He went on to say that there is a limited or no use of a formal project governance system and a lack of distinction between the actual decision and decision analysis. There is also a tendency to jump to premature conclusion and a culture of overlooking project-related risks as well as exaggeration of project benefits at the outset and optimism bias.
As to him, there should be a means to gateways with requirements for documents and a need of comprehensive reviews. Placing key decisions at a high political level and ensuring early involvement of stakeholders are mandatory.
And also there should be focus on alignment with public policies and embedding good governance principles as well as systematic project evaluation and professionalization of public project organizations.
Adding he said that, establishing a committee to identify the governance lines of a selection of large investment projects and letting the committee evaluate how those projects were initiated, developed and implemented, particularly, in the pilot projects of Grand Renaissance Dam, sugar projects, railway projects would seem one of the merit-demanding serious attention in governance public investment projects.
According to him, setting up a political and technical gateway review process is the other way in the implementation of public investments. It should be established as a strong mandatory control regime and it has to include a team of independent external experts.
And there should be quality assurance of the choice of project concept, the management base, cost estimates and cost benefit analysis. Moreover, there should be the political gatekeeping through involving the very top of government. And then the technical gatekeeping must have strong political support and full operational autonomy.
He pointed out that establishing a research center under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance and planning commission, is also means to properly manage public investment projects, in such a way that developing knowledge and expertise on the front-end phase of projects, monitoring trends and suggesting improvements to the state project model and analyzing projects under the quality assurance scheme as well as contributing to the continuous improvement of the scheme.
And to learn lessons by publishing reports periodically about the work of quality assurers and project evaluation results.
He further indicated that establishing a board that overviews the governance of projects in the country, is also a way to public investment model.
The board, under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, would give an overview of the work of quality assurance consultants and review reports from the research center.
Then, the board of directors would also give directions to the research center regarding future work. Ensuring commitment and interest from the decision makers, is a trajectory for the success of public investment projects. The presence of appropriate models and structures and systems is not enough to develop good projects.
The presence of a commitment and interest from the decision makers iskey.
This implies that proper training and consultation are necessary to change the culture of politicians towards projects.
He stated that implementing the right systems to monitor and adjust the framework are needed for evaluation, lessons and improvements of the system. Selecting the right projects and programs to do them in such a way that Preparing and analyzing the information as well as choosing the right project concept and making optimal decision.
No matter how eager we are to transform the country, we should not rush to implement large and complex projects that involve several unclear risks and consequences. And priority should be given to setting up political and technical gatekeeping mechanisms, he highlighted.
The Ethiopian Herald April 26/2020
BY MEHARI BEYENE
