Why project management training is key in public sector

Among the graduates of Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) in May, this year was a unique group – they were receiving a tailor-made postgraduate diploma in project management, and they were all senior managers in the Laikipia County public service.

Why was the county investing in project management training? Because county governments’ budget cycle draws heavily from project management. The development budget, in particular, comprises hundreds of typically small projects, ranging in size from Sh1 million to Sh1 billion. 

Misalignment of procurement and implementation processes leads to pending bills and low project completion rates. Soft projects, like change management and software development, give governments the most trouble. This is generally because of the poor project scope definition. 

A 2018 Commission for Revenue Allocation study found that 33 counties had attempted to automate revenue collection in the first devolution period (2013-2017). About half increased the amount of revenue collected while the others suffered declines. All were struggling to get more streams included, and none had managed to automate administration.

Political promises

Many projects start as political promises. If you are lucky, they are stated expressly in a manifesto. But often they will be stated in a general manner or implied. Technocrats are expected to then translate the promises into actionables through the county-integrated development plan (CIDP). Each year they will then take a slice, translating it into the annual budget.

Both the campaign process and public participation for the CIDP and the annual budget afford the citizens direct input in project initiation. But it can also mean fuzzy scope. The rather modest county budgets impose severe limitations on project size. The most successful managers are those able to innovate and mobilise resources beyond what is available from their own source revenue and equitable share to implement larger, potentially more efficient projects.

But annual budgets and disbursement constraints can have serious implications on project schedules, dragging even a tiny project over several years.

Project success, that is outcomes and impacts, is experienced rather differently by key stakeholders. For political leaders, it is about votes. For technocrats, the longevity of the bureaucracy and their own jobs. For the citizen, a quality service such as a good road, and if they can get away with it, a personal benefit such as a job. These conflicting views of project success can make the project manager’s job incredibly complex.

Counties, under continuous scrutiny, as well as the oversight institutions such as the assemblies and the Controller of Budget (CoB) are rightfully concerned about effective and successful project implementation.

CoB is routinely urging timely completion and settlement of pending bills. All of this has led theorists and practitioners to seek project management processes, tools and techniques for small projects. DeKUT is responding to this with a tailor-made postgraduate diploma and a full masters level programme.

@NdirituMuriithi is an economist