Management (staffing, including consultants)

The TCR should have provided more details about consultants and their work. The TA fund was underutilized, with the consultants’ costs reduced from $370,000 to $228,000.Substantial TA outputs were also under-delivered. The TCR should have investigated and discussed why this was the case. Meanwhile, it would have been useful to also discuss the performance of ADB staff, the executing agency, and the implementing agency, in the context of under-delivered TA outputs.

A lesson could have been included here regarding the benefit of sourcing individual experts as opposed to a firm for wider experience and knowledge of PPPs in other countries.

It is agreed that close communication and timely change in implementation arrangements helped minimize the impact of disruptions and ultimately secured TA completion (although not efficiently as expected). Effective management throughout the project cycle helps to make the project delivery more robust and resilient to challenges arising during project implementation.

The consultant met the deliverables as stated in the TOR. Unexpected incidents, such as political turmoil, adversely impacted TA implementation. Close communication and timely change in implementation arrangement effectively minimized such impacts and secured efficient TA completion

A lesson statement would be: Providing longer-term contracts for the PRIF CO staff and strengthening the technical expertise of the PRIF CO in key areas can increase the continuity and stability of the staffing arrangement and improve the operational effectiveness and efficiency of the PRIF CO.

Significant changes to the PRIF CO staff (3 to 6 full time staff with 14 different consultants hired under 21 individual contracts) led to challenges in the delivery of services. An operational review conducted in 2018 proposed new operational structures to address “the need for longer-term funding certainty and broader funding base” and “the desire to provide greater stability in PRIF CO management and PRIF CO core team.” Majority of the individual consultants engaged for the TA performed satisfactorily.

The TA proposed additional consultant hours to support processing operations. With remaining budget available, this may have been an opportunity for increased utilization of TA-financed personnel to assist or train government staff. The TA generated high quality documents. With the remaining funds, there could have been an opportunity to support the implementation of recommended actions.

Useful lesson. It may have been more convincing though had the TCR included a specific example of the application of this lesson to the TA

Management of staff and consultants requires a clear understanding of project objectives at the country level and identifying the right talent for each task. Clear deliverables with realistic deadlines and effective communication were key elements to the success of this project.

The same project officer handled the sole subproject under the cluster TA from the start to the end. There was also no change in consultants at any stage. They were found to be highly qualified for the tasks assigned. This shows the importance of consistency not only in managing the TA, but also of the consultants’ inputs for successful achievement of the outputs.