The Public Works Challenge

A reader sent in this link to an interview with former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, What Might Have Been. where the challenge of constructing public projects was discussed in light of the new Stimulus Package.

Dukakis, who ran for President in 1988, noted:

Well, there’s a serious public construction management problem in this country. They give you estimates plus or minus 50 percent...nothing inevitable about it, and it has everything to do with the kind of direction you’re getting from the public side.

I was asked to comment. 

Managing construction projects can be one of the weakest links in the public sector yet can easily be overcome. 

States and municipalities normally did not have ‘clerks of the works’ or project managers on staff. For road construction this was not necessary since between the traffic and public works engineers there were enough qualified people who understood the construction process.

For other projects, municipal and office buildings, and more novel projects like civic centers, deep tunnels and the like, public employees who qualify as project managers are in short supply.

If I wanted to do a study of cost overruns or quality of the job  and could only examine one variable, I would look at project management. Too often this responsibility was left to the contractor, who obviously had a conflict of interest since the contractors’ first obligation was to their company. Some government agencies would leave that to the architect, who also had a conflict of interest.

There are too many instances where a state, city, county or school district, when faced with hiring their own project manager, would cut the position in an effort to stay within budget. The results can be  disastrous  as change orders and overruns mount.

The construction company and the architects are qualified professional people, but the government must have its own person on site to review the process.

This problem is definitely bi-partisan.

Comments

[jim guilfoil]

The idea of a state bank was offered in a letter in the CapTimes this morning. Is raises some questions you might address?

Would a state reserve bank require state notes in competition with federal notes as promises to pay? Could a state income tax be handled thru such a bank to pay school costs from income rather than a property tax on homes...
Interesting.

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/letters/438229

[Brian]

Too bad Dukakis let himself get swiftboated by Lee Atwater and crew. He was far ahead in the polls in the summer and then ran center-right on the issues and blew it.

That stupid photo op in the tank was dumb. Had he run with Jesse Jackson's platform (hey an actually progressive black presidential candidate) he would have easily beat Bush.