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. ADB needs to provide adequate orientation seminars on ADB project administration procedures during project processing, followed by more in-depth trainings on procurement, financial management, and safeguards to improve project readiness and strengthen the implementation capacities of counterpart agencies. It also has to provide continuous implementation support to enable the government to carry out complex sector reforms. At the same time, the government should strive to maintain its skilled and experienced staff to help ensure timely and smooth project implementation.
Higher Education Reform Project