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 ability of all participating utilities to successfully adopt and implement organizational changes to meet the project requirements should be assessed, with specialized external support in utility management provided as necessary.
Having an implementing agency with staff who are well-versed in ADB procedures benefits all facets of project implementation and ensures timely project completion. This capacity also provides a strong base for further building the capacity of implementing agencies in asset management and operation and maintenance, and financial management and audits.
which will benefit the implementation and sustainability of future projects.
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.
Establishing a skilled and effective lake basin authority was a long and arduous process. Converting the Chao Lake Management Authority (CLMA) from a sound concept to a skilled, effective lake basin planning and management organization evolved over time, and actions taken under the project helped the CLMA to establish its authority from scratch.
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.
Engagement of dedicated safeguard specialists could help strengthen safeguard implementation capacity. A project management and construction supervision
consultant served as focal point for safeguards. No major issues in safeguards were identified.
Maintaining key specialists even after major institutional changes helps keep institutional memory within the executing agency and is important for successful project implementation. During project implementation, the government’s economic reform caused institutional changes in the road sector. Despite the change, key members of project management unit remained unchanged, which helped minimize delay.
Project partnership agreements with government on human resources and funding are critical to effective implementation and sustainability. While initially the project national project implementation unit had issues on staffing, procurement, and implementation, these were resolved with incremental additional staffing, recruitment of a small core team of individual consultants, and restructuring to a subproject management unit. The non-recruitment of a social development specialist; to be funded by the government, affected the Gender action plan monitoring and planned survey update.
Dependence on consulting services hired under a separate ongoing ADB-funded project can cause coordination problems and unnecessary delays. For instance, the submission of this project’s 2018 semiannual environment monitoring reports was delayed because of lack of dedicated attention. Better management of the consultants by the project management unit would have helped achieve the intended efficiency.