KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, KUMASI INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE LEARNING (IDL) COMMONWEALTH EXECUTIVE MASTERS IN MASTERS

IN BUSINESS / PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

CEMBA 555 PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY FIVE (5)

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1. Identify all the stakeholders of the above project.

The Government The Highway Development Authority (HAD) The Political Authority The Ministry of Land The Foreign Company Provincial Engineers Office (PEO) Mr. Ebrahim Deputy General Manager Mr. Mooshin A consultant Mr Praba Valuation officer Government press Citizens of the town Landowners

2. Against each stakeholder, list the objectives each wanted to achieve through implementation of the project.

The Government a. Owe it as a duty to use the tax payers money to develop the people and provide infrastructure of a town. b. To repay the value of the land they acquire for the project. c. Appoint a valuation Officer

The Highway Development Authority (HAD) a. Design the project b. Award contract to the Provincial Engineers Office (PEO)

The Political Authority a. To better the lines of the people. b. To develop the area for free movement of pedestrian and vehicular movement and use it as a campaign tool for election

The Ministry of Land a. Gazette the Divisional Secretary of the area as land acquisition officer

The Foreign Company a. Design the project by ensuring that roads are constructed and done on time before elections. b. Prepared an action plan

Provincial Engineers Office (PEO) a. To make sure that the acquisition of land near to the road sides are done quickly before construction begins b. Maintain road in the province.

Mr. Ebrahim a. To show this dissatisfaction for not being awarded contract.

Deputy General Manager a. Employ a qualified engineer to handle the contract.

Mr. Mooshin a. To finish project on time so as to justify capability, efficiency and effectiveness as a newly qualified engineer by doing a good job

A consultant a. Prepared action plan

Mr Praba a. Acquire land next to road side

Valuation officer a. Assess value of properties including building, tress and the like by the road side before the start of the project.

Government press a. To ensure that the gazette notification for the acquisition of land for the road construction is published on time to kick start the process before the road construction.

Citizens of the town: a. To have congestion free movement of both people and vehicle as well as develop in the area and to make sure that they use their thumb wisely to get what they want

Landowners b. Demand for compensation for the valuable properties lost o them because of the road construction.

3. How could project administrators avoid such problems? Suggest ways and means.

Unpredictable clients can be a huge hassle they sometime do not know what they want until a certain stage is complete. This can be solved by having a clear path mapped out from start to finish because it forces the stakeholders to be specific with their requirements, as well as keeping the project on track.

When there is trust and fairness in the duty of project administrators, the use of the right offices and people for the every project, the project will be done fast to avoid conflict.

People are busy, but its tough for one to move forward on a project if you can never get answers from the person youre working with. This can be solved by drastically increasing ones response rate by doing a little bit of work ahead of time. Instead of waiting for the back-and-forth discourse to finally take place, simply start moving in the direction that you think is best and then seek verification. This strategy makes it easy for the stakeholders to quickly say yes (or no).

There has never been a project that has the same circumstance, requirements, and needs as another project. Situations, people, and goals change over time. Instead of squeezing every project into the same template, some time can be spent crafting milestones specific to the needs of each project. To put it simply, ones schedule changes all the time. That means the way you plan your projects needs to change as well.

From the case it is realized that most stakeholders did not like what the project administrator creates. If this happens often, then there is a communication issue that needs to be addressed. One must understand not just the technical requirements of a project, but also the underlying rationale of the stakeholders. Why did they decide to do this in the first place? What are they hoping the work will enable them to do

when all is said and done? How do they see the project fitting in with their overall strategic vision? Good project administrator should create a shared vision between all stakeholders. Its their responsibility to understand the direction of a particular project as well as the overall strategy of the stakeholders and then to make sure those two items match up.

Working on a project that isnt high on the stakeholder priority list can be frustrating. In some cases, the person responsible for communicating with the project administrator has little or no interest in the project. The completed product will have no direct effect on their job, they are hard to ask questions to, even harder to get answers from, and they provide minimal guidance. When screening potential stakeholders, do the best to find out if the contact person has a vested interest in the project. Pay attention to their awareness about potential problems or risks you could run into, their level of urgency when scheduling this project in their calendar, and their desire to communicate with you quickly and consistently from the beginning. If they brush these issues to the side, then it is worth your time to talk with someone else and establish a second point of contact before deciding whether to take on the project or to avoid the project all together.

Avoidance of cross-pressure and conflict of interest between political authority and technical administrator.

The bureaucracy involved in some of the process should be reduced so that the slowness in action and difficulties of coordination will be reduced not eliminated.

In conclusion, there are literally countless reasons a project can run into issues, but the vast majority of them can be solved with clear and frequent communication. While it is easy to point blame in the direction of the stakeholders, it is the project administrators responsibility to consistently initiate contact and keep the line of communication open. Consistent communication is only created by active effort of the project administrator and this doesnt just happen naturally.

4.

Do you think the project failed because there were a lot of stakeholders involved?

The number of stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of a project does not really matter. What matters though is consensus building from the formulation stage through to the implementation and evaluation levels.

Also there must be an authority to monitor and to make sure the various stakeholders are performing their duties as expected. The stakeholders could have been more but the above stated in place the number of them does not actually matter.

5. Did the award, formulation and implementation of this project pass through the normal channel and were the various institutions in the state responsive?

The Kandura City Development Project in my opinion did not pass through the normal channel of decision making. It was borne out of pressure from the provincial government. It did not go through the normal way where it would have been discussed at the cabinet level, then to the legislature and pass down to the bureaucrats for the implementation. In the words of the political authority of the area, it was a special project and that means it would not been implemented through the normal way of implementation of projects in the country.

As a result the various institutions of the state who were to monitor could not do it. These institutions, from the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary, Bureaucracy, Media and the others were not responsive to the project.

The Central Government after mandating the Highway Development Authority to implement the project sat up and became indifferent towards the project. The Provincial Government did what it could but it did not materialize.

On the part of the legislature, there were not responsive because the decision to execute this project was done outside parliament. Hence they did not have any input in the project. The same can be said of the judiciary.

The bureaucracy through the Provincial Engineer Office protested about the way the project was implemented but the office was ignored. Hence they sat on the fence and delayed in the acquisition of the land for the project and in the implementation as well.

The media and the other bodies were also not responsive to the Kandura City Development Project hence failure to achieve its purpose.

REFERENCES: Commonwealth of learning, 2003. CEMBA 554 Public systems Management, Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8, Canada.

Whetten, D.A & Cameron, K.S 2002. Developing management skills, 5th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

www.designcouncil.org.uk/thepowerofbranding