Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has said it is trying its best to cut down the number of disrupted projects from 80 percent to less than 10 percent by the end of this year.

"We are studying the reasons for the disruption of some of our projects, which are valued at a total of SR30 billion," said Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-Muwakkili, deputy minister for water services.

He said the ministry had taken effective measures to ensure efficiency of project management.

"This has reflected positively on project performance and reduced the number of disrupted projects from 80 percent in 2016 to 28 percent by May 2017," he told Al-Eqtisadiah business daily.

He said the ministry was successful in identifying the main reasons for the disruption of projects after analyzing available data and conducting a number of workshops.

"In light of these efforts we have set out an executive plan for follow-up," said Al-Muwakkili, who is also executive president of the National Water Company.

Spelling out the reasons for projects faltering, he said the delay in payment of dues to contractors led to small-time contractors halting work due to dearth of liquidity.

"We have also noticed delays in obtaining permits from the Ministry of Transport and the municipalities to carry out some of the projects. At the same time, some official procedures took a long time affecting the work," he added.

Approving materials and sub contractors, weak performance of some contractors, who usually offer the lowest bidding, were other reasons for the disruption. Some projects were awarded to enlisted contractors without checking their financial capability, he pointed out.

"Weakness of consultancy firms in designing and supervising projects was another major reason," Al-Muwakkili said. "This led to changes in the plan, raising the project value. We are also unable to make use of allocated funds for several projects," he explained.

Shortage of qualified project management staff in some regions was another issue. "We have adopted a number of effective measures to ensure quick and efficient implementation of projects to realize the hopes and aspirations of citizens," he said.

Al-Muwakkili emphasized the ministry's efforts to ensure good coordination between various departments of the ministry, contractors, consultancy firms and other parties involved.

"The ministry wants to develop a successful work culture as a strategy to ensure effective implementation of projects and their sustainability. We are also working on how to tackle the weaknesses of contractors by holding regular meetings with them," he said.

The ministry will issue warning letters to contractors who delay projects, implement corrective plans, withdraw projects from weak contactors and appoint young officials to realize the goals of Vision 2030.

"We are in the process of setting out a new mechanism to evaluate consultancy firms to discard inefficient firms,” Al-Muwakkili said. "We will coordinate with government agencies to speed up issuance of permits and review the requirements of contractors."