Browsing by Author "Supervised by Main M. Nazeer"

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    A Critical Study of the Project Appraisal Management and Control System in Pakistan: An Exercise in Evaluation
    (Department of Economics, University of Peshawar. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, 1989) Saiyeda Zia Al-Jalaly; Supervised by Main M. Nazeer
    In common with most developing countries, the history of planned development in Pakistan is replete with flopped projects, projects that don not see themselves to completion within the stated time and cost, or projects which do not fulfil their avowed objectives. Even otherwise well conceived projects face difficulties at the implementation on other related stages. Worse Still, the project cycle system has neither been examined nor regarded in its totality as an integrated system. This study is an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the project appraisal, management, and control system in Pakistan. The approach taken is an integrated one where, despite the emphasis on the ex-ante appraisal and implementation stages, the entire project cycle in Pakistan has been examined in order to the able to link the stages and study the problems of omission and commission which emerge at the implamentation stage. The study is, however, confined to the public sector projects which need to pass through the well laid out procedures. Being a study in the evaluation of a system, it has involved quantitative as well as qualitative examinations. These examinations range from a review of the theoretical aspects of the project cycle and its stages as well as the techniques used at various stages, to the progression of the project cycle in Pakistan, and eventually to an evaluation of the system and recommendations to improve the system. The theoretical sections are based on an extensive review of literature followed by use of secondary data based on government publications, supplemented by intervious and discussions with experts involved at various levels of planning and stages of the cycle. The main findings of the study centre around the inadequacies in the structure of PC-1, cost and time overruns, data gaps, motivation and training of personnel, lack of coordination, absence of contingency planning, lack of appropriate apprasal parameters, problems relating to project selection criteria and procedures, lack of staff, absence of an institutional link between appraisal wing and monitoring team. Findings relating to the approval and implementation stages of projects relate to the distortions arising out of anticipatory approvals, breaking of projects into smaller components to avoid higher echelons of approval and appraisal, problems arising out of the discrepancies between the need and availability of resources, a total absence fo any input or tiem plans leading to raw material constraints, delays in the provisions of essential services and physical infrastructure, problems arising out of the bases of award of contracts and selection of sites, lack of inter-agency coordination and communication and lack of a modern progress monitoring system. Findings in the field of project montoring/control centre inter alia around lack of processing of the information collected, too much information requested, jtoo frequently, and no sifting of information by level of importance, lack of trained personnel to undertake montoring; absence of an institutional monitoring set-up to handle un-anticipated problems; absence of forward and backward flow of information and decisions through an established channel. The study comprises six chapters- the first four laying out the system as it is, the fifth is devoted to an evaluation of the system, while the sixth contains the main conclusions and policy recommendations.