Shifting of utilities need to be included in civil works contracts to avoid delays in construction and ensure that all required utilities are shifted. Contracts should also include precautionary measures to prevent contractors from taking advantage of utility shifting issues in their favor.
Contracts approved for extension for valid reasons or due to force majeure should be allowed a price adjustment. Currently, price adjustment is applicable only within the intended completion date. However, some contracts have to be extended beyond their intended completion dates, e.g., during COVID-19. Based on the COVID-experience, it will be sound to consider allowing price adjustments for any contract approved for extension for valid reasons or due to force majeure. Amendments pertaining to this may be made to the standard bidding document.
Establishment of professional project administration divisions and retention of experienced and trained government officials in these units can help mitigate the risk of project delays. Project implementation experienced substantial delays despite the preparation of time-bound action plans, project completion was still delayed by 60 months for Lao PDR and 48 months for Viet Nam. The recurrence of this experience in this project may be better addressed by putting in place professional project administration divisions, staffed by trained and experienced personnel.
Administration by a single team of future regional projects will enable better assessment of their regional impacts. The sector division in ADB headquarters delegated the administration of this project to respective resident missions after the midterm review in 2016. Country review missions were conducted separately after the delegation, causing discrepancies in loan financial management, safeguard compliance, and benefits and results monitoring. This led to difficulties in assessing the project's regional impacts.
Failure to identify and provide the necessary human resources can affect the implementaton of well-prepared projects. This was shown in how the deficit in operation and maintenance specialists and national engineers in the project implementation team and the late recruitment of a gender specialist had caused implementation delays.
The establishment of one interagency project management unit promoted comprehension and commonality of objectives across agencies, and both facilitated and simplified various financial and administrative processes.
The establishment and staffing of project management units and inclusion of counterpart funding in government budgets prior to loan approval help prevent delays in loan effectiveness. This was another benefit that resulted from the project's application of earlier lessons on the importance of advance actions.
Timely planning of project extensions and a more realistic extension period will improve loan utilization. Undisbursed amounts under this project resulted largely from new government policies as well as contextual and operational factors. Various activities were canceled because of government restrictions on the use of loan proceeds for soft components (e.g., training, workshops, etc). Non-disbursements were also associated with other policy modifications, such as restrictions on the recruitment of international consultants. But contextual and operational factors also played a role.
Foreseeable delays in procurement and disbursements may be overcome by (i) including project readiness measures such as advance actions; and (ii) ensuring dedicated, full-time) and qualified staff with relevant experience for key project management positions. Amounting to 1.5 years in this project, these delays were attributable to the complexity of procedures in Viet Nam, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the large number of project facilities involved.
Deficiencies in structure and lack of authority can hamper the work of the PMU and create implementation difficulties. Although the PMU was established to coordinate the work of various departments of the executing agency, the PMU structure could have been more effective. The PMU’s role was limited to liaising with ADB and coordinating the inputs of the executing agency’s planning, design, procurement, and construction departments.