Designation of an alternate TA team leader despite resource constraints is necesssary to ensure seamless project continuity and institutional knowledge transfer. It will also mitigate potential disruptions caused by staff turnover.
Designation of existing consultants to higher positions and responsibility levels may be explored to fill vacancies during implementation. There were two changes to the team leader position. The first was due to the resignation of the specialist because of an unexpected urgent assignment from his hiring university. The consultant recruited as the replacement team leader was not capable of performing the role. Instead of going through contract termination and recruitment process again, the TA team appointed the national simulation specialist, who had demonstrated strong leadership.
Frequent review missions are crucial to overcoming implementation challenges. The TA was administered by staff located in head office with good support from the Pakistan Resident Mission. However, ADB staff assignment changed during the TA implementation period; and the limitations and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic induced challenges to consultant management and client interaction. Frequent review missions significantly helped address these challenges.
Responding to the government’s changing needs and external factors could cause delays in the delivery of expected TA outputs particularly capacity building activities. Furthermore, organizational restructuring of revenue agencies, as well as frequent turnover of counterpart staff meant that capacity building was constantly in repeat mode. Addressing these issues could lead to efficiency gains and could help the government reach key performance targets quicker.
Coordination across several government agencies require strong leadership and persistence; given the regular transfer of government officials to other positions and ministries, it is important to set up a scheme for maintaining institutional memory within the executing and implementing agencies throughout program implementation.
High turnover of staff in project implementing and other relevant agencies affects institutional memory. It requires additional time and effort to introduce to new staff while ensuring close involvement and ownership in project implementation.
High staff turnover worsens capacity constraints. In this project, it aggravated lack of capacity to undertake procurement using ADB's Procurement Guidelines and the increased risk of misconduct and delays during implementation. Additional procurement capacity building for executing agency staff during implementation is therefore necessary even if procurement capacity risk is considered minimal at project appraisal.
Proper handover of project responsibilities and documents will prevent staff turnover from negatively impacting project implementation and documentation. Staff turnover at the executing and implementing agencies caused implementation delays and loss of institutional memory.
The executing agency was not able to prepare the project completion report because staff could not recall or find information related to the original project. The unintended consequences would have been prevented by proper handover of documents and responsibilities.
Selection of the most suitable modality to support institutional development requires adequate consideration of the various factors intricately linked to it, including the prevailing political dynamics, incentive structures in public administration, and commitment of the relevant development agencies. In the case of this project, frequent changes in the senior management of the Erdenes Mongol jeopardized project ownership and seriously affected implementation.
High staff turnover, weak procurement and contract management capacities, and lack of familiarity with ADB procedures, often the cause of implementation delays, need to be addressed jointly by ADB and government counterpart agencies. Because of the changes in the executing agency’s senior-level officials, turnover of the project staff was high. The project also suffered from counterpart agencies' weak procurement and contract management capacity and lack of familiarity with ADB guidelines.