1. PMIG 12 April 2012
Project Management capacity building in support of enhanced Public Service delivery
Presented by: L Neethling
PALAMA

2. Presentation Outline Introduction
Importance of Project Management to government
Infra-structure plans for the country 2012
Projects and collaboration of key government departments
Effective and Efficient Project Management on government projects
Case studies on project failure
Analysis of project failure
Capacity building and Project Management
PALAMA’s project Management courses
10. Closing

3. Introduction
EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT + COLLABORATION OF KEY GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS + EFFECTIVE MONITORING AND EVALUATION = ENHANCED SERVICE DELIVERY

4. Importance of Project Management to Government
Project Management has become a core skill in the make-up of all public sector managers and professionals.
Recognition to this important competence has been given in the competency profile that has been adopted for all members of the SMS in the public service, and are also taking due cognisance of it in the extension of the competency profile to middle and emerging managers.
Project Management is essential in developing the economic environment of the country.

5. Importance of Project Management to Government (cont)
SoNA of 2003: The President remarked on the need for the Public Service to develop capacity for programme and project management and actually elevate the importance of this skill by appointing dedicated project managers in some instances.
SoNA of 2012: The President announced that projects focusing on health and basic education infrastructure, information and communication technologies and regional integration, have been chosen for government's infrastructure development drive.
Transnet's Market Demand Strategy, which entails an investment over the next seven years of R300 billion in capital projects. The strategy will not only create more jobs, but will also position South Africa as a regional transhipment hub for sub-Saharan Africa and deliver on the New Partnership for Africa's development's (Nepad) regional integration agenda. A total of R200 billion is allocated to rail projects and the majority of the balance to projects in the ports. Among the list of planned projects is the expansion of the Iron Ore Export Channel from 60 million tons a year to 82 million tons a year”.

6. Infra-structure plans for the country 20126

7. Infrastructure plans for the country
(cont)
Mpumalanga/Northern Cape: Building new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape. A total of R300 million has been allocated for the preparatory work.
North West: Expansion of the roll-out of water, roads, rail and electricity infrastructure in the North West. Ten priority roads will be upgraded.
Limpopo/Mpumalanga: The development and integration of rail, road and water infrastructure centred around two main areas in Limpopo: the Waterberg in the western part of the province and Steelpoort in the east. These efforts are intended to unlock the enormous mineral belt of coal, platinum, palladium, chrome and other minerals, to facilitate increased mining and stepped-up beneficiation of minerals. There will expansion of rail transport in Mpumalanga, connecting coalfields to power stations. This will enable a shift from road to rail in the transportation of coal. The eastern parts of the North West will also benefit from the greater focus on infrastructure connected to mining and mineral beneficiation.

8. Infrastructure plans for the country
(Cont)
Western Cape/Northern Cape: Expansion of the iron-ore rail line between Sishen in the Northern Cape and Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape, which will create jobs in both provinces. The iron-ore capacity on the transport side will increase capacity to 100 million tons a year, which will allow for the expansion of iron-ore mining over the next decade to feed the developing world's growing investment in infrastructure and industrial activities.
Eastern Cape: Development of a major new south-eastern node that will improve the industrial and agricultural development and export capacity of the Eastern Cape region, and expand the province's economic and logistics linkages with the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

9. collaboration of key government departments
Projects and
collaboration of key government departments
Example: Municipal Infrastructure Grant
Department of Sport and Recreation SA
Provincial departments
Department of Housing
MIG
Department of Corporate Governance
Department of Transport
Municipalities
Department of Public Works
National Treasury
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry

10. Effective and Efficient Project Management on
government projects
“Major challenges facing government today is the delivery of all construction and maintenance projects on time, within budget and in accordance with the desired scope” – (Paper by Department of Quantity surveying and Construction Management, University of the Free State).
The most critical challenges facing government’s infrastructure service delivery programme are:
Infrastructure backlog constrains economic growth
Under expenditure on infrastructure budgets
Poor application of project management.
Poor time management.

11. Case studies on failed projects
Project Location
Project description
Failure
Causes
Polokwane Prison
Upgrading of Civil Infrastructure, Wet Services & fencing
Contractor failed to complete project on time and within budget
Non viability of tendered rates
Poor project time management
Poor project quality management
Baviaanspoort Prison
Repair & waterproofing of roofing
Project completed 15 months late – Heavy penalties imposed.
Makhado Air Force Base
Project Winchester: Construction of Taxiway
Project completed 3 months late. Penalties imposed.
Cost overrun
Poor project cost management
Poor project scope management

12. Analysis of project failure
Poor project cost management: Contractors fail to apply effective project cost management from the outset.
Poor project time management: Poor planning, a lack of a consistently updated project plan and the failure to apply critical path analysis techniques, invariably affect the other project management knowledge areas.
Poor project quality management: Too often, contractors take on too much work, become over extended and become constrained due to a lack of resources resulting in poor project quality management.
Poor project scope management: Poor scope direction given by the client which resulted in poor scope development by the consultant and ultimately in project failure.

13. Analysis of project failure (cont)
It is evident from the failures of the case study projects that project time management was not a key priority for the contractors concerned.
Contractors generally ignore the legal requirement to employ project managers’ who are registered with the South African Council for Project and Construction Management, which leads to in experienced or poorly capacitated project managers leading government projects.
Poor project quality management: The Public Service and the citizens deserve to get value for money and each project which fails as a result of poor workmanship and materials represents fruitless expenditure and ultimately unnecessary costs to the tax payer.
No robust monitoring and evaluation system.

14. Capacity building and Project Management
It is crucial for government to take a strategic view on quality management and minimum standards based on a “zero tolerance policy”. This can only be achieved through the collective effort of all role players, programme managers, project managers, professional consultants, contractors and suppliers.
“Project failures caused by poor project scope management can be attributed firstly to poor scope definition by government and secondly to the poor translation of the scope into design and documentation by the project management team” – (Paper by Department of Quantity surveying and Construction Management, University of the Free State).
Capacity building in Project Management is essential to ensure effective, efficient, and timely implementation and management of all project activities at the national, provincial and local government level.
This includes: Capacity building (PALAMA) and general project support.

15. Developing public servants who serve and deliver
Skills, knowledge and competence
A supportive institutional environment
Ability
Space
Will
Commitment, culture and ethos
PERFORMANCE
I want to!
I can!
Organisational culture and ethos define the ways things are done:
norms to support delivery
supportive leadership
value driven delivery
Building knowledge and skills through:
skills development
training
networks
research
sharing knowledge
education
I am allowed!
Formal and informal authority, structures, regulations enable or limit participation and engagement to move beyond policy to practice. 15

16. PALAMA Project Management courses
Basic Project Management in the PS
Advanced Project Management in the PS
Training alone will not result in the optimum benefit gained for the public sector from the approach of project management.
We need to also take into consideration the procedures and systems, the structuring of government, as well as the entire service delivery field to make sure that project management mechanisms that we introduce will be feasible and appropriate for the highly complex and qualitatively different contexts than those in which the private sector is operating in.

17. Closing
INPUT BY THE HONOURABLE GERALDINE FRASER-MOLEKETI AT THE OCCASION OF THE IQPC CONFERENCE ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Sandton, Johannesburg, 26 November 2003
“We need to ensure that project management becomes integrated in our overall government and public service approach. It must become part of the organisational culture”.
“The potential for entrenching project management deeper into the public sector is great. The potential for it to result in greater effectiveness, better service delivery for the people of this country and the rest of the continent is not in dispute. The challenge for us it to move from having that insight, to actually realising the full potential”
As public sector employees we need to move from a situation where they realise the relevance and the potential, to one where we firmly institutionalise a project management across the South African public sector.

18. Thank You For more information on our training and services:
To speak to a consultant : Tel
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To request a quotation:
Or visit our web site:
L Neethling
Director: HRM&OD