ADB supported IT system for Project Management and Monitoring debuts

The Ministry of City Planning and Water Supply, with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), yesterday launched the ‘Project Management and Monitoring IT System’.

Minister Rauff Hakeem was the event’s Chief Guest. This system was developed and tailor-made for Sri Lanka for project management purposes specially to monitor project progress. The system was developed with assistance from ADB under the Technical Assistance Program (TA-8562 SRI) for Capacity Development for Project Implementation for the Government of Sri Lanka. This will first be launched in water sector projects financed by ADB and will be used for other projects and sectors upon request.

In several portfolio review meetings carried out by ADB and the gap analysis carried out, the Government and ADB noted that most of the projects experienced delays, cost overruns and disputes. This situation resulted in the Sri Lankan Government incurring additional costs, the prolongation of social and environmental impact during construction, contractors facing cash flow problems and depriving the general public of the use of infrastructure facilities for years and the underutilisation of foreign funds. 

Insufficient capacity in project management and contract management skills have been identified as a key contributing factor for these negative impacts in project implementation. Therefore, the Asian Development Bank approved a Technical Assistance Program (TA-8562 SRI) for Capacity Development for Project Implementation for the Government of Sri Lanka to enhance project and contract management capacity of staff engaged in the implementation and execution of national infrastructure projects. The development of the IT system took almost two years and the input of the relevant stakeholders with particular emphasis on the water sector has been incorporated by developer MS Technologies. 

The IT toll has three components. It has core projects management software, a document management system and a correspondence management system. It also has included the templates required for 65 procedures explained in the projects and contract management manual.

Key features 

• Project program included in the contracts can be inputted into the system 
• Contractors should update the project progress data to the system and Project Management Units will approve it
• Contract variations will be updated
• Online Real time Contract Management can be done
• All stakeholders are given view, edit and update permission
• Bird’s-eye view of all projects for senior management
• Computer-based contract correspondence of all project communications
• Document management system for storing, archiving and retrieval
• Contract document templates for all 65 producers in line with contract management manual
• Reporting templates for different stockholder requirements with flexibility to customise
  
   

Key benefits

• Relevant authorities can keep track of project’s progress details 
• Tracking of contract execution and deadlines, bonds, commencements and variations
• Be informed early about shortcomings on project delivery delays
• Better utilisation of resources (labour, equipment and materials)
• Collaborative working arrangement - Improved productivity and efficiency of project teams
• Better communication platform for project correspondence
• Improved decision-making process , reduce prolongation of projects 
• EAs, IAs and development partners have access to real-time information
• Senior management teams in the PMU are regularly updated with the project progress