Factors Affecting The Foreign Funded Projects Implementation in Transition Economies
Farhan Ahmed
Department of Economics & Management Sciences
NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Email: fahmed.ned@gmail.com
Muhammad Shahzad Siddiqi
Department of Management Sciences
SZABIST, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Email: shahzadsidiqi@gmail.com
Ummara Ghazanfar
Govt. Apwa College, Lahore,
Higher Education Department, Govt. of Punjab
Email: ummara786ummara@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This research is aimed to find the delay factors/obstacles in project implementation of grant-in-aid projects in Pakistan. Foreign investment is considered to be an important factor for an economic activity of any country. Project delays are repeated problems in any type of the project and every project can have issues in kick off, mobilization of manpower, approvals from concerned departments/agencies, maintaining quality, budget release, change request, controlling project scope and decisions made by key stakeholders. In order to conduct this study, qualitative approach was used, in which a semi structured interview was conducted from consultants, contractor, client and key stakeholders involved in the execution of the project through purposive sampling technique. Thematic analysis was conducted on the data and the analysis of this study reveal that the magnitude and frequency of delay factors are more on the recipient side as compared to the donor side of the project. Recommendation based on findings, are equally beneficial for stakeholders of the research,including consultants, contractors, recipient and donor agencies. Future researches may include impact analysis through quantitative analysis of delay factors identified in this research.
Keywords: Grant-in-Aid, Executing Agency, Donor Agency, Consultant and Contractor
Foreign investment is considered to be an important factor for the economic activity of any country. Project delays are repeated problems in any type of the project (i.e Foreign Aid project). It is evident that every project can have issues in kick off, mobilization of manpower, approvals from concerned departments/agencies, maintaining quality, budget release, change request, controlling project scope and decisions made by key stakeholders. At project planning stage, one has to be very careful about the demographic situation of the country, the culture of people and state policies (Dhrifi, et al., 2020). In many projects, poor risk assessment becomes a critical issue while planning the project. In such cases, if contingency assets are consumed along with allocated budget without updating the project management plan and relevant documents, the financial situation of the funding department becomes critical. This research analyzes the delay factors in foreign funded projects by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Pakistan, which affect the project completion timeline, cost, and/or quality. In construction projects, the success of a project depends on the balancing among above these three factors (Wang, Wei &Sun, 2013). Project delays are well known to be as repeated problems in the construction industry (Mahamid, 2013). However, reasons for delays can vary from one project to another. Similarly, reasons of the local funded projects may differ from those of foreign funded projects. There are many donor agencies doing a project in Pakistan, e.g. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), United Nations’ program, United States’ financial aid and Fulbright scholarship programs, Australian Foreign Scholarship Program, etc. This study focuses on Grant-in-Aid projects funded by JICA. Local projects are directly financed by the government and, depending upon the sector, the return of investment is of the prime importance and already calculated during feasibility stage. The government is the key financier and key stakeholder of the project. If a commercial project is foundunprofitable, the government has to finance to keep it alive or close it. Pakistan Steel Mills, Karachi is one of the examples. However, the delays in foreign funded projects gain far more importance as compared tostate financed projects at international level. The bad governed projectscan affect the bilateral relations of donor and recipient country, prestige of the recipient country at international level and curtailing the chances of further cooperation among recipient and other countries of the world.According to Aibinu &Jagboro (2002), a project delay is contributed from one or all of the three parties known as Consultant, Contractor and Client. Mahamid (2013) described that project delays are universal phenomena, whether it happens in a developed or developing country.
Usually project delays impact negatively upon project progress, budget, relationship among three parties resulting in disputes and legal battles.Although project delays have a high likelihood in technology or construction projects, these may not be taken as usual. Because large projects involve local as well as multinational companies funded by foreign agencies. Any kind of immature attitude towards project management can have serious consequences upon one or all of the stakeholders involved in the project. Moreover, the relationship between donor and acceptor countries may be compromised. Since foreign investment bringsa lot of developmental activities within the country, a dispute or legal actions beacon negative signals to the investors throughout international industry. A lot of work has been done in ascertaining the delay factors in the construction industry, however, very few research papers are available regarding only grant-in-aid projects.
In this research, the authors have considered projects funded by JICAin Pakistan and a particular case study of Grant-in-Aid project in which the project timeline was extended by more than a year. The objective of this research is to identify the key factors responsible to affect the project timeline. The population of research is project managers, engineers and consultants. The secondary data includes the project documents, project charter and periodic reports.
The project scope included the construction of three huge buildings on three different locations at sea Ports in Karachi and installation of Gantry Type scanning equipment in these buildings. The requirement of this infrastructure was initiated by a federal government department through Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and requested to JICA for financing on Grant-in-Aid basis. The JICA sent its consultants team to evaluate the feasibility and requirement of the project as requested by federal department. The consultant’s team conducted two detailed site surveys at different time frames in 2014. They also held meetings with concerned stakeholders of the project. Based on the recommendations of preparatory survey, a report was submitted to Japanese Parliament for approval of budget. Meanwhile, recommendations of survey team were incorporated in the Project Charter (PC-1) and submitted to the Planning Commission for subsequent approvals from the Planning Commission of Pakistan and CDWP. The exchange of note and grant agreement were signed between JICA and EAD. As per conditions of Japanese Grant, the main Consultant and the main Contractor were to be of Japanese origin.The federal government department (initiator) became the executing agency/Client/beneficiary of the project, which set up its Project Management Unit (PMU) in Karachi. The Contract was awarded on a turnkey basis. The feasibility of the project was evaluated by a Japanese consultancy firm which was also responsible for monitoring and controlling the project during the implementation stage. The Agreement and Contractor had some obligations on both donor and recipient sides. The scope of project included the construction of three identical buildings on three sites of two sea ports in Karachi and installation of three Gantry Type X-ray scanners.Our research is exploratory based. Although many research papers concerning executions and mitigating delays have been published at international and local level. However, very few research papers have been written regarding foreign aid projects in Pakistan,which identifieda major research gap in this area. Therefore, the author claims that the findings of this research have correlated the other foreign aid projects already completed, being executed or in the pipeline. The beneficiary of the research are project managers, donor agencies, the government and non-government organizations working on construction projects.
Increased budget deficit due to higher imports than exports does not allow for sustainable economy. Moreover, increased foreign debt, law & order situation and corruption are a few bottlenecks hindering self-reliance of the country. Accordingly, Pakistan has to rely on foreign aid from different donor agencies e.g. Asian Development Bank, Japanese International Cooperation Agency, and few United Nations’ Development Programs. Pakistan has to rely on donor agencies for economic stability and infrastructure development. This study is related to the construction and transfer of technology project funded by JICA.
The foreign funded projects are different in many aspects from local funded projects. Like, if a local commercial project is found unprofitable after completion, the government has to finance to keep it alive and in this scenario, other countries are not much concerned about the failures/delays in local projects, the delays in foreign funded projects gain far more importance as compared to state financed projects at international level, the grant agreement enlists obligations of donor as well of recipient side and breach of agreement can impose penalties to the concerned party. Moreover, the bad governed projects can affect the bilateral relations of donor and recipient country, prestige of the recipient country at international level, the chances of further cooperation among recipient and other countries of the world are curtailed affecting the economic cooperation with the international community. In addition, the donor agency reserves the right to increase, decrease or withdraw the funding at any stage of project, the transparency of funding is of the prime importance for donors and cannot be compromised, the standard of implementation is very high from donor side, recipients’ organizations’ culture, demographic situation of site and political situation of country directly concerned with the timely implementation of the project. Smooth implementation of the project is of prime importance for every donor agency and the recipient needs to realize it. Sometimes, the donorsmay havea sense of supremacy. However, in most of the cases,it is not always true. The security of foreigners working on the project is the responsibility of the recipient country. For Pakistan, foreigners are very concerned about it and since foreign investment brings a lot of developmental activities within the country, a delay incurred by recipient, a dispute or legal action beacon negative signals to the investors throughout international industry. Keeping in view all above factors, what kind of delays are faced by Grant-in-Aid projects is the main research problem area of this research.
A wide research gap has been identified in this area because very few researchersgain access to the project databaseand limited number of professionals are willing to respond on interview request. Thus, finding delaying factors in foreign funded projects, increases the importance of this research. This research study has been beneficial for project managers, policy makers, government and non-governmental agencies, donor agenciesworking in Pakistan or planning to do so.Agencies who undertake such projects or do not undertake can decide after going through the findings of the study.Executing agencies, consultants and contractors, the researchers, project planners and scholars will extract useful information from the research.
Foreign aid plays a vital role in increasing the economic activity (Zhang, 2020). Various countries have shown keen interest in investing their money in infrastructure development of the developing countries for bilateral trade (Hao, et al., 2020; Tunio, 2020). The best example, these days, is the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) under one belt one road initiative of China. During 1950s the US’ aid for Pakistan was devoted to military assistance, according to US foreign policy interests. By the end of 1950, the foreign aid was started to be utilized for nation building and the expansion of basic services. The Grant in Aid projects on the other hand, are provided free of cost or more than 90% cost by funding agency. Despite the fact that the project delays are common and costly in general, it becomes more significant for donor funded projects (Jayakanthan & Jayawardane, 2012).
According to Jayakanthan & Jayawardane (2012), the lifecycle of donor funded projects consists of six steps: identification, preparation, appraisal, negotiation and agreement, implementation and evaluation. There are various problems or we say delay problems might chase in all steps before or during the donor funded projects. Our study is focused on grant-in-aid projects that is one of the type of a donor funded project.
Grant-in-aid projects are funded by donors with non-returnable basis. Generally donor funded projects are funded as loans (returnable basis with or without interest). There are many Regional and international donor institutions such as the United Nations, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Japanese International Cooperation Agency, etc. Donor agencies ensure that the allocated funding fromthe government or the boards is disbursed to the recipient country and being spent for the required purpose. Therefore JICA conducts audits after every project to learn the lessons and based on recommendations, decide accordingly. An effective coordination is necessary for achieving the objectives of the project. Better coordination increases the likelihood of such problems and enhance the overall effectiveness of development by donors. In our case study authors have considered only one donor agency JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency).
In case of local funded commercial projects, the delays are expected, even with the best consultancy, skilled manpower, quality of material and surplus budget available. Force majeure are the threats beyond manpower control. Therefore, chances of delays cannot be completely avoided in real situations.The managerial capacity of the executing agency determines the success of a project. According to Arndt (2000), the officials in donor funded projects may be inexperienced in management of Grant aid, budget formulation and accounting.
Our study purpose revolves around exploring the delay factors in grant-in-aid projects. Le-Hoai, Dai Lee & Lee (2008) found that two factors measure the success of a project at closing stage, one is cost and the second is time. It means that a deviation of the above factors from planned estimates might declare the project as unsuccessful. The above authors also identified 21 different causes of delays and cost overrun in construction projects in Vietnam. Comparing the results they identified 7 common factors in Asian and African construction projects. In this study, we are mainly concerned with the schedule of the project.
Arditi & Pattanakitchamroon (2006) surveyed from many contractors and construction companies to find the causes of delay and identified as lack of resources, problems in financing from government agencies, departmental weakness, design delay, change request and scope increase. Despite delays and increased cost are the well-known problems in projects throughout the world, these are more severe in underdeveloped countries. The five main causes of delays; change in design, inadequate performance of labor, lack of planning, shortage of material and wrong estimation were identified by Kaming, Olomolaiye, Holt & Harris (1997)in Indonesian projects. The same study was repeated in Kuwait projects which identified scope change, lack of funding and inexperienced owner of project as main causes of delays (Koushki, Al-Rashid & Kartam (2005). They recommended proper financing, through working planning of the project, including design, competent and experienced Consultant and Contractors for the project in order to avoid delays. Bulman, Kolkma & Kraay (2016) conducted correlation studies for project outcomes in funded projects. They analyzed 3797 projects of the World Bank and 1322 projects of Asian Development Bank. They found that 10 - 25 % of the variation between countries, while the rest of the variation was found within the countries.
According to a qualitative study conducted in Ghana for ground water construction projects, by Frimpong & Oluwoye (2018) their results show that issues in periodic payment, contractors’ performance, indenting of material and an increase in material cost should be avoided to prevent the delay and cost overrun. Frimpong et al., (2018) claims that unequal weightage of importance of periodic payments is the root cause of delay in projects. In Ghana, the project funding is made by government funding or foreign assistance in the form of Grant in Aid. The delay in payments is observed due to bureaucracy in government agencies. During a qualitative study of sewerage and water construction projects in Saudi Arabia, Al-Khalil and Al-Ghafly (1999) discovered that number of delayed projects are correlated with the contractor classification grade. Alghbari et al. (2007) identified issues in project finance, coordination and availability of material. Al-Momani (2000) conducted research in Jordan in 130 public building projects. They identified that delay causes are correlated with issues in design, change request, bad weather, inappropriate site conditions, shipment/supply delays, poor economic conditions and increase in scope. Throughout the world, many researchers have been paying attention towards analyzing the delays in construction projects including Mpofu et al., (2017) in UAE, Bagaya et al., (2016) in Burkina Faso, Santoso et al., (2016) and Durdyev et al., (2017) in Cambodia, Senouci et al., (2016) in Qatar, Aziz et al., (2016) in Egypt, Amandin et al., (2016) in Rwanda, Samarghandi et al., (2017) in Iran, Kagiri et al., (2017) in Kenya, Nguyen & Chileshe, (2015) in Veitnam, Olawale & Sun (2015) in UK, Locatelli et al., (2017) in Europe, Khan (2013) on foreign funded capacity developmentprograms for head teachers in Pakistan whereas this study is on foreign funded, grant-in-aid projects on construction industry. The next section discusses about the data, how it is collected, summarized and analyzed.
The research is qualitative in nature and thematic content analysis is a useful and practicable tool to obtain a complex and rich data.The primary data have been collected in verbal form through an open ended questionnaire to identify the incidences of delays.The research study explores the factors affecting the timely completion of Grant-in-Aid projects in Pakistan, the non-numerical, data has been collected through in depth interviews from the sample chosen from identified populations of research.The methodology section elaborates uponthe epistemology, theoretical perspective and methods of research employed in this research. Basically thematic analysis consists of 6 stages of research (Brown&Clark,2006). Unlike grounded theory, detailed theoretical or technological know-how is not required, it presents manageable form of analysis.
The population of this research includes project managers, policy makers, government and non-governmental agencies, donor agencies operating in Pakistan or planning to do so, executing agencies, consultants and contractors. Since, this research study is qualitative,the sample or sample size cannot be restricted. The interviews are conducted from 8 field expertsfrom above the frame of reference using purposive sampling technique. Field experts with adequate knowledge and experience of subject (not less than 5 years) are our purposive samples in this study (Campbell, et al., 2020).
The Semi-structured open ended questionnaire is the tool for gathering the primary data through interviews. The propositions driven questionnaire was validated from various fields and research experts (IMAMURA, 2020).
Authors have used constructionist thematic approach to analyze the data through transcripts. From the constructionist point of view, meaning and experience are socially produced and reproduced instead of inhering within individuals (Burr, 1995).Thematic content analysis has been usedand similar patterns were searched around the data set (Braun &Clarke, 2006). It is necessary to consider the outlined questions before and during thematic analysis.
Analysis involves moving back and forth among the data set, to find the hidden patterns in answers and finally writing down the content and writing down the meaning of data. The first step is to familiarize yourself with the data. It involves listening pre-recorded interviews and preparing transcripts. Second step has generated initial codes.At this stage, initial codes are generated from the data. The next stage is searching for themes.At this stage, we focus ona broader level of themes instead of codes. Identify potential themes, and gather data collected from codes under these potential themes. Principally, codes have been analyzed depending upon their coherence with each other. Sometimes different codes are gathered and themes encompassing all such codes are identified. This is the crux of the research and this happens, when we start thinking about relations between codes, between themes and between different levels of themes (encompassing themes and sub-themes contained in them) (V. Braun & V. Clarke 2006).The next stage is to review the themes. At this stage, we review about themes developed in the previous step in two steps. One way, we check that the whole data is coded under candidate themes. Second, we start refining the candidate themes and see that candidate thematic map represent the whole data set.The last stage is refined and name the themes. Once you have a candidate thematic map representing the coded data, you can move to define and refine each theme. For each theme you need to write down a detailed analysis.
This section covers the findings computed from the transcripts of the respondents. The figure 1 shows the thematic map covering all four propositions of our study.
Figure 1. Thematic Map of Grant-in-Aid Projects
The first proposition states that non-defense sector foreign funded projects are beneficial for the economic sustainability of Pakistan. Analyzing the data at first glance from the transcripts that repeatedly identifies three aspects about initiation of Grant-in-Aid projects. Three aspects include non-returnable, lack of resources on recipient side and socio-economic benefit of the recipient country.
Figure 2. Justification of Project
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The figure 2 shows the three steps that are related to justification of project i.e. potential projects are identified by federal or provincial department of recipient country for Grant-in-Aid on the basis that it will be funded by donor on non-returnable basis, the asset will be established without installation cost, the lack of resources; technology, finance, skilled manpower and expertise for such project and that the project should be beneficial for mass population of the recipient country, it will be utilized purely for non-defense purpose.
The PMU setup expenses range from 5-10% of the total project cost when compared with the donor funded amount. Generally, donor agencies prefer projects on poverty elimination, education, schools, health, hospitals (including Children Hospital in Karachi completed by JICA), sanitation system, water development, small dams, irrigation projects (including tube well project in Lahore completed by JICA), electricity generation, anti-terrorism, anti-criminal, social environment improvement and fundamental infrastructure (including road and Karachi Circular Railway - KCR project in Karachi, Sindh – Pakistan).
Figure 3. Thematic Map of Donor Expectation
Figure 4. Thematic Map of Recipient Expectation
Figure 4. Thematic Map of Recipient Expectation
In order to ascertain second proposition, four questions were asked of respondents, include level of cooperation they desire form recipient country departments. Respondents helped toidentifyfew parameters, like obligation of the agreement, avoid further demanding beyond the scope of the project, cooperation and sustainable operations. Following figure 3 is the thematic map of donor expectations, and figure 4 is the thematic map of recipient expectation.
Based on the interviews, most respondents say that Pakistan is a suitable country for such projects. However, they emphasized that the obligation of the agreement should be followed in true letter and spirit. They also identified some malpractices in government departments which hinder the smooth implementation of the project. The candidate themes of this proposition are; obligation of the agreement, stakeholder Management and PMU setup without any delay with proper experienced and qualified project director and staff.
Referring to the third proposition of our study on delays in completion of Grant-in-Aid projects in Pakistan.We found thirteen obstacles that are faced during initiation phase. Obstacles include: delay in preparing the request proposal for Grant-in-Aid by recipient country, long sequence of filing, observations and justification among different departments of recipient country, improper PC-1 (absence of risk management plan), delayed PMU Setup (Irrelevant, inexperienced, non-qualified project director and staff), delayed hiring of consultant and contractor, improper tender documents, bidding delays, absence of key stakeholders, delayed release of funding from donor side, cultural differences and communication gap, irrelevant experienced and unqualified consultant, PMU and contractor, delayed acquisition of site for handing over to contractorsand security bound site (special approval required from aligned agencies). The thematic map of obstacles from recipient side is shown below in figure 5.
Figure 5. Thematic Map of Obstacles from Recipient Side
The thematic map of obstacles from donor side is shown below in figure 7.
Figure 7. Thematic Map, Obstacles from Donor Side
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Figure 6, Thamatic Map of Impact Factors
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The last and fourth proposition questions that are delays associated with roles of stakeholders in project implementation?The authors asked six questions under this proposition, including one table for finding perception of consultant, client and contractors about the same activity.The authors found a very interesting pointthat client/owner/executing agency held responsible the other party.There are other aspects as well, including, inadequate monitoring system by PMU and consultant, main consultant and main contractors are from the donor country as per conditions of the agreement (in case of JICA projects). This relationship is sometimes biased towards contractors or consultant has not enough powers to impose plenty on contractors in case of poor performance, in continuation of the aspects it was found that consultant should have more powers to snub the contractors in case of poor performance, a project is likely to delay in case of many stakeholders (Only effective stakeholder management can overcome this issue), project fail or succeed by the decisions of key stakeholders. This theory is verified by respondents of the interview. The JICA case study
project facedmonths of delays due to bad performance of the contractor, wrong decisions taken by project director of executing agency and bad stakeholder management by executing agency during planning and implementation stage of project.The thematic map of performance model is shown in figure. 8. All themes and codes are evaluated against contribution of delays in case of non-compliance.
Figure 8. Thematic Map of Performance Model
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This study aims to find the obstacles in the foreign funded the project implementation of Grant-in-Aid projects in Pakistan.Based on the thematic analyses, various types of delays in project implementations have been identified during thematic analysis. The authors conclude their findings now by discussing the delay factors step by step. Lack of planning is one of the important factors causing delays. Major delays occur in planning, designing, bidding, and selection of contractor. It was observed that proper planningcan reduce the delays in the remaining stages of the project (execution, construction, completion and operation). Major delays occur in planning, execution, budgeting and approval for site entry and land acquisition. Planning should be among the most critical stages in the view of contractors/sub-contractors and clients. It was also pointed out that shipment delays were faced during execution of the project.It has been criticized in the study results that the corruption in government departments and lethargic attitude of officials hinder the provision of utilities at the project site. Our study’s results are inconsistent with the study done by Bagaya et al., (2016), Durdyev et al., (2017) in Cambodia, Amandin et al., (2016) and Kagiri et al., (2017).
Moving forward it was also found that approvals for PC-1, working NOCs, designs, provision of utilities, entry passes for Pakistani and Foreign Nationals for security bound site location, consume much more time and is one of major reasons for delays in every stage of the project. It was found that the project objectives and urgency are not realized at subsequent levels of government departments. The bureaucratic environment and corrupt practices should be eliminated, irrelevant officials may not be deputed in the approval process. Administrative interference should be avoided. The results of our study reveal an alarming situation on the level of cooperation from recipient departments which is around half of the capacity they have.
Stakeholder management is among the key success factor for any project. It was found by the clients’ side that the more stakeholders in a process, the more likely is the delay to occur. In our case study, the decision maker kept one key stakeholder deliberately out from one process of land clearance, despite the opinion of the technical staff of PMU, the Contractor and Consultant. Later on, the missed stakeholder formally interrupted upon the project activities on site and execution work had to be stopped for a few weeks until settlement. The reason being the inexperienced decision maker of executing agency made this situation worst. The lack of authority to project director is mostly the reason behind delayed startup of Project and approvals therein. In our case study, although the project director was authorized for hiring and firing of the PMU Staff, however, he personally had no prior experience of managing such projects.
The authors also conclude on the basis of the result that the design of the project should not be changed once finalized. In case of requirement, the formal change request should be initiated and evaluated by experts. Any informal change can have a detrimental impact on schedule and cost. The original design should be approved by experienced and qualified consultant. International and national codes and laws regarding productivity and safety must be observed while implementing the design.
The weakness of owner/executing agency includes the timely setup of PMU and hiring of experienced and qualified project director, project coordinator and staff in relevant field of project management of donor funded projects. Moreover, the project director should reside in the site location city to monitor the progress and sanction relevant approvals onthe spot.Delayed land acquisition, land clearance, obtaining free of cost entry permits for Consultant, Contractors, Subcontractors and PMU Staff enter the security bound site, brought startup delays which could not be completely covered till completion of the project.The vested interest, business, office politics and sectionalism further affected the motivation level of technical staff working on the site which should be avoided to gain maximum productivity of the team.
The site location matters when approval of the utilities and construction is sought by concerned authorities. The departmental culture should be aligned to meet the urgency of work associated with the approvals for work and site entry.All respondents emphasized that if site is security bound and many stakeholders are involved, the periodic meetings should be held and representatives of security agencies should be realized the importance and nature of work. Since our site location was security bound and many stakeholders were involved, the approval for entering the site was not easy. The schedule of the project was delayed by 15% on average.The bad performance of contactor, executing agencies, consultant or the relevant departments affect the project timeline.
On the basis of above stated conclusion, the below recommendations can be helpful for all the stakeholders.
Furthermore, due to limitation of time and respondents available for an interview, the consequences of impact of delays were not covered in detail in this research. The impact analysis requires quantitative data for research. Therefore, it is further recommendedto conduct impact analysis of delays factors in Grant-in-Aid projects in Pakistan and other developing economies/countries.
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