Introductory meeting was held to discuss the national program to support the project management, operation and maintenance in the public agencies (Mashroat). The meeting was organized by Asharqia Chamber, represented by the Construction Committee, on the morning of Sunday, 15 July 2018 at the headquarter of the Chamber in Dammam. The meeting seeks to be a reference and a source of information for this program.
The program aims to create a platform for disseminating knowledge and expertise and feeding research institutions to raise the level of the construction industry and project management in general, as well as for working with the relevant authorities to introduce, discuss and reform the systems and address the causes of weakness and upgrade the overall environment for project management.
The meeting was opened by a member of the Board of Directors of Asharqia Chamber and the Chairman of the Chamber's Contracting Committee, Hamad bin Hamoud Al-Hammad. He said that the ambitious projects (Mashroat) started in 2015 by a decision of the Council of Ministers in order to achieve the ambitious goals to commensurate with the realities of the country that is witnessing the growing of the movement of projects in various fields.
The stated objective of the program was to develop and manage an integrated national plan and to develop policies, standards and methodologies for efficient and effective project implementation.
Among the objectives, the project management offices have been provided with the training, tools, guidance, funds, and change management practices, as they are required to support their capacity building and competencies; support project management offices with human resources and monitor their performance; evaluate the adoption of project stages and monitor the performance of the implementation of important projects and address the challenges they have faced; and provide project management services supporting or of national importance including "mega projects."
The meeting witnessed the presence of a large number of businessmen, specialists and interested parties from the business sector.
During the meeting, Engineer Al-Balawi, the program manager, emphasized that the program is working to develop a long-term national plan that will clarify the vision of all government agencies and stakeholders, develop systems and practices in the government sector, consolidate them, and monitor and manage the governmental projects.
He added that the vision of "Mashroat" is to reach a global level, which represents the potential engine for managing public projects with sufficient efficiency and to have a sustainable impact on social and economic development, in addition to enabling public project management offices in government agencies and developing a flexible environment for efficient project implementation.
The program's objectives are as follow: (harmonization) and means to review, develop and manage an integrated national plan and the development of policies, standards and methodologies for the implementation of projects with high efficiency; (empowerment) through the provision of project management training, tools, guidance and funds and the management of change as they are required to support the building capacity and efficiency; (support and evaluation) through the support of the project management offices with human resources and follow-up performance and evaluation of the adoption of project phases and follow-up performance of the implementation of important projects and address the challenges that they may face; and (project management services) through the provision of project management services for assigned or nationally important projects, including mega projects.
He pointed out that the reality of the implementation of projects in the Kingdom suffers from the main observations, including the rate of delay of major projects from two to three years, in addition to the failure of many projects that were worth tens of billions of riyals.
This is due to the lack of long-term strategic planning, short-term project portfolio planning, lack of rationalization of expenditure and lack of priorities, absence of initial site planning and services, and identification of stakeholders for the project, which requires the restructuring of project management in government agencies.
He added that project management and business management lacked expertise and suffered from weaknesses in the mechanism of controlling changes, as well as the lack of realistic classification of contractors, the lack of transparency and the low level of working competencies, weak supply chain, widespread use of poor quality construction materials, and small and medium enterprises limited to specialized occupations.
Al-Balawi said that the revenues from many projects lacked the local component. He explained that 90% of every Saudi Riyals in the construction sector goes abroad except for concrete and contractor profits.
He noted, for example, that the proportion of engineers practicing the profession in general in the construction sector is declining, not exceeding 6%.
While the statistics indicate the presence of about 2000 unemployed Saudi engineers, in return for the presence of 170 thousand foreign engineers working in the Kingdom according to the statistics of 2017.
He pointed out that the added value of the individual in the construction sector in the Kingdom is low, compared to what is in other countries, not exceeding 1.1 thousand dollars. While this amount reaches in a country like Canada with a population of 30 million, 3.7 thousand dollars.
The labor productivity does not exceed 17% compared to developed countries such as the United States.
He said that the waste of public money has become a feature of government projects, where the Kingdom ranks 62th of the world rankings in the index of integrity during 2016.
He added that the solution is to manage the projects-not the field supervision, as well as the transition from the management of individual projects to portfolio management, separating the role of the project owner from the project manager, and the use of specialized companies in case of insufficient capacity in the agency.
He stressed the importance of benefiting from foreign expertise in the transfer of knowledge and experience and not to repeat the experiences of the sixties and seventies.
He pointed out that some government departments have tended towards resettlement and Saudization away from taking advantage of the global experience that preceded us in this regard.
He stressed that the economic benefits of change include avoiding the waste through using 25% of the capital expenditure. He said that the Kingdom spends about 100 billion riyals on the infrastructure projects, saving 50 billion riyals; as well as reducing risks by providing 7% and reduce delays by 2% and reduce costs and adherence to the timetable by 15%.
He emphasized that the development of project departments in the government agencies contribute to the creation and activation of tools to develop the infrastructure to be highly efficient and effective.
In conclusion, Al-Hammad honored the guest of the meeting, Engineer Al-Balawi, with a commemorative shield.
