Why gov't projects delay

Sep 13, 2012

Corruption still leads in the delay of evaluation of contracts, World Bank experts have said. According to the Public Procurement Disposal of Public Assets Authority’s November 2011 performance monitoring report, a tender subject to open international competition takes 360 days compared to the expe

By Billy Rwothungeyo

Corruption still leads in the delay of evaluation of contracts, World Bank experts have said. According to the Public Procurement Disposal of Public Assets Authority’s November 2011 performance monitoring report, a tender subject to open international competition takes 360 days compared to the expected indicative time of 155 days!

Delays in procurement are usually at the bid evaluation contract performance stages for several  reasons.

Corruption
The World Bank cites corruption as a major factor in the delay of contract execution. Usually, staff handling or managing the process delay to complete it until a bribe is forked out.

In other cases, when the preferred bidder does not clinch the contract, the department is less interested in completing the process.

“Many times, a delay is designed to create an artificial emergency so that a non-competitive method of procurement like single sourcing can be adopted to suit a few individuals,”

World Bank officials say
Weak performance management and monitoring of government projects is another major factor in the delay of contracts completion, according to World Bank analysts.

No incentive
“Civil servants are not effectively held accountable for delivering on their targets on time. Therefore, even where there are delays, no one takes sufficient responsibility to point out these delays and take action to ensure that the process is sped up.

Civil servants also know that they will not be sanctioned for inefficiency and yet there are no real rewards for being efficient,” an official states.

Lack of coordination
The lack of adequate coordination within government agencies also leads to the delay in contracts.
Agencies fail to seek and obtain clearance for contract implementation using land/property belonging to another agency.

The World Bank cites the case of the Lubigi Drainage Channel crossing the Northern Bypass and Bombo Road where delays of over four months occurred in the process of KCCA seeking UNRA clearance.

Weak capacity
Contract performance delays result from weak contractor capacity to manage the contracts they are awarded. The World Bank cites M/s Spencon’s works on Lubigi Drainage Channel. The firm has executed only 25% of the work in 78% of the time and is therefore, unlikely to complete the contract on time.

Bureaucracy

Further, the World Bank cites government delays in paying suppliers and contractors, which inhibits their capacity to complete on time. For example, in the education ministry, a payment goes through 15 approval steps before it is completed while for the public service ministry, payments to providers take over 60 days on average!

Amatos Mwebeiha, the Umeme procurement boss, says contracts delay because procurement steps are not followed to the book.

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