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chapter 1
Introduction
It may be proper to introduce this book with a short list of data and observations on failed and abandoned projects in some African countries as given in the following paragraphs:
- ā¾ In one country, a government commissioned audit revealed that 11,886 government projects failed in a period of 40 years up to 2011 (this translates to about 300 failed projects each year) [1].
- ā¾ In October 2016, a former director-general of a government procurement unit in an African country stated that there were 19,000 government projects in various stages of abandonment [2].
- ā¾ On 30 December 2011, citizens of a large African city were shocked when the government announced the failure and abandonment of a $10-billion housing project between the Government and a foreign company [3].
- ā¾ It is sad that strategic industrial and scientific projects worth billions of dollars which were conceived with the best vision for the industrialisation of a country, were abandoned; some remain uncompleted after over ten years with much money sunk into the projects. The invested nationās resources and future industrialisation vision in the sector remained in tatters [4, 5, ].
- ā¾ It has been the experience that new public enterprises appear to be generally implemented without any planned forecast of income generation from the project deliverables. These deliverables could be a government electricity generation plant, a steel production plant, a petroleum refinery, or any other government industrial plant, each of whose project is planned, completed, commissioned and put into operation. Yet, there is no arrangement to ensure that the revenue generated will be adequate to fund the operations of the plant. Such revenue is required for salaries, cost of raw materials, cost of spare parts, cost of maintenance and replacement, etc. For example, in an African country, between 2010 and 2017, the Federal Government budgeted $66 million for a government owned steel company, out of which $62 million was used to pay salaries. The government kept allocating budget to pay workersā salaries to such companies which should have been able to generate funds for their operations but could not do so. The large industrial plants failed and were abandoned for many years. Some of the steel plants were being reactivated in 2018 and 2019 after over ten years of abandonment [6].
With this bleak failure picture, it is little wonder that our industrial landscape has become a ājunkyardā of abandoned projects in various stages of disrepair and failure [7]. It is relevant to acknowledge that project failures and abandonment are not exclusive to African countries. Many countries, with well-developed economies, also experience project failures and abandonment. However, our continent is underdeveloped, and we are playing catch-up in economic development with advanced nations. We also lack the internal resources to help our catch-up efforts. In addition, our project failure rate is much higher than failure rates being experienced in developed countries. Therefore, we cannot continue to waste our scarce resources and those received from external investors.
It is necessary at this point to define the main words that will be encountered in the book, such as project failure, abandonment, successful, sustainable, corruption, etc.
Definition of Terms: Project Failure and Abandonment, Successful and Sustainable Project Delivery
Project failure and abandonment: Generally, when a project fails to deliver the agreed product or service on or within the agreed time or on or within budget, it is said to fail. However, even when the deliverables are produced with some over run on budget or time, organisations tend to accept the products or services. The focus of this book covers such projects which may not be completed and then abandoned, as well as project deliverables which cannot be operated after a few years of being produced. For example, they cannot be operated or used two or three years after production, and these are deliverables that should have a lifetime of over ten, twenty or more years. The emphasis is therefore on failed and abandoned projects.
Successful projects: These are projects that are generally completed on time and within budget and produce the agreed deliverables. Without being hard and fast over the precise completion on time and budget, some owners are happy to accept the project deliverables as long as they can keep them in operation over their planned lifetime.
Sustainable project delivery: This could be defined as the planning, monitoring and controlling of project delivery such that it considers and maintains the support processes, environment, financial returns, social and ethical impacts, and operations of the deliverables for the planned lifecycle of the project. It also considers the resources, processes, etc., in order to yield benefits for stakeholders.
This foregoing definition is helpful as a goal for the success being advocated in this book. It is sadly the case, as presented earlier in this introduction, that the current project delivery is so poor that many costly projects are abandoned and not completed. Some which are completed and produce deliverables are abandoned because there are no resources to sustain or maintain them in operations over their planned duration.
Corruption: This is a word that may occur as many as 65 times in this book. In its various manifestations in business, economics, politics, etc., it is blamed for most things that are badly handled. Whenever there is a failure of a project or even a public operation, the first reaction is to suspect corruption as the reason for it. This is the assumption even before the failure is investigated. According to Transparency International, corruption could be defined as āthe abuse of entrusted power for private gainā [8].
Main Objective of the Book
The overriding objective of this book is to help prepare African public and private companies to conduct their projects effectively and efficiently so that they will successfully produce deliverables which are sustainable and can operate profitably throughout their planned lifetime. In other words, it should help achieve the following goals:
- ā¾ New projects should be completed on time and on budget.
- ā¾ Project deliverables should be operated competitively in the market. They should earn income to fund their operations and should be profitable throughout their planned lifetime.
- ā¾ At the planning stage, there should be resources arrangement for the operation of the deliverable after it has been commissioned into service or production.
- ā¾ There should be estimates of how much income the deliverable will generate during its lifetime operations including the benefits.
- ā¾ There should be a timeline for the income to be produced.
- ā¾ The income so generated should be such that the product becomes financially self-sustaining and competitive throughout its lifetime.
Given 13 years of hands-on operations in public and private sectors and rising to become a chief engineer, the author was faced with problems of failed and abandoned national projects in a developing country. His experience also includes over 20 years as a project management consultant in African countries representing major multinational companies; he has painfully observed the recurrent failures which are not limited to one country. Over the years, he has written more than 30 papers on project management problems in Africa. He has also spoken on the subject at international conferences in Africa.
As a result, the book will discuss the problems, suggest solutions and propose a framework that could be adapted for success by project management professionals, project owners and decision makers in their respective projects.
Target audience: The target audience or readership includes international and local persons, professionals and organisations who plan and execute projects in Africa such as:
- ā¾ Consultants and contractors
- ā¾ Project planners, project managers, project team members
- ā¾ Maintenance and operations managers
- ā¾ National and foreign governments and international organisations
- ā¾ Non-governmental organisations: for-profit and not-for-profit
- ā¾ Private companies and businesses
- ā¾ Educational institutions and universities
- ā¾ United Nations agencies
- ā¾ Other professionals and professional bodies
Emphasis on competitiveness: As already stated, the main objective of this book is not just to achieve the successful delivery of projects on time and within budget but also to ensure that project deliverables are commercially and financially competitive throughout their planned lifetime. They should be planned and executed such that the deliverables, in operation, will compete successfully in the marketplace. They should earn income to pay their workers, fund their operations and maintenance, provide profits and other planned benefits for their stakeholders. The practice of funding by governments, or external organisations, of companies to ensure the survival of their project deliverables, which are produced to operate commercially, should be stopped. Companies and their deliverables should be able to survive and respond to the demands, pulls and pressures of market forces. Over the years, it is doubtful whether there have been any considerations of the return on investments in the planning and implementation of our national projects.
Our national budgets may not have been properly developed as business plans in our countriesā development pl...
