Establishment of the Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility Coordination Office

The implementation of PMC-approved activities led to the production of 78 technical reports and publications. This was executed through the recruitment of 146 consultant contracts including 6 consulting firms, 132 individual consultants and 8 resource persons. The implementation of the TA was generally successful but some activities encountered delays for a variety of reasons, including the lack of familiarity of consultants with ADB systems, including the Consultant Management System and the introduction in late-2018 of the Technical Assistance Claims Partner; changes in priorities from client governments during the course of TA activities; the introduction of more stringent mission clearance requirements in 2018; intermittent work overloads of the PRIF CO team; and occasional issues with consultants. The changes to mission clearance requirements from PIC governments required additional documentation and processing time. Given that missions were scheduled to coincide with the availability of government counterparts, it was necessary to reschedule due to delays in mission approvals. The TA also encountered some delays in procurement during the overall TA implementation period, particularly during the procurement of firms using quality_x005F_x0002_and cost-based selection method and processing multiple individual consultant selection in parallel following approval of multiple activities by the PMC. A monitoring and evaluation specialist was recruited as a consultant to undertake activities related to outcome performance indicators c, d and e. The consultant did not complete this assignment despite concerted follow-up with the consultant and the performance evaluation for this consultant was completed to reflect the non-completion of the assignment. There was not sufficient time prior to the completion of PRIF Phase III to carry out a selection process for a replacement monitoring and evaluation specialist and completion of the work. PRIF CO will follow up on the reporting under TA_x005F_x0002_9819 REG, the new phase of PRIF.