Our project management capabilities are limited

Dear Editor,

The issues relating to the completion and management of the stadium that resulted in the ICC-CWC wresting control from the LOC is just another example of the poor project management capabilities that exist in the country.

There is no effort to determine the length of time that would be required to undertake a particular task, milestones that must be reached by a specific time, contingency plans to address any delays, etc. Everything just slides along merrily. Managers in Guyana, especially in the public sector have no experience and concept of the importance of measuring the progress of a project and closing a project by a specfic time.

So many projects are allowed to slide. In many cases, there aren’t any legal stipulations built into project plans that would allow the government to hold a vendor financially liable for any default in the delivery date.

Even if there are those stipulations, such a poor job is done in managing the various components of the project, that it results in the government foregoing its leverage on holding the vendor accountable.

This is more difficult when the difference between politicians, government officials and vendor is blurred. Hopefully all the BMWs are working and ready.

The Berbice River Bridge is another example of a project that just seems to be sliding along merrily. It can’t even seem to get started.

Why pay millions of dollars for a study if it cannot evolve into a realistic working document and then a meaningful project plan to be executed.

I recently attended an event where the keynote speaker said that project managers are special people created by god. They also have to possess some attributes of a dictator. Nice, sweet jolly and gay persons aren’t good project managers.

Why isn’t the project sponsor for these national projects, demanding results?

Yours faithfully,

G Persaud