Is Technical Competency Necessary for Client Project Manager? An Empirical Study of Commitment-making Officers (PPK) in Indonesian Public Construction

Public construction in Indonesia still suffering failure in the last few decades. Evidence shows that one of the source factors to public construction failures was a lack of technical-area understanding in Commitment-Making Officers (Pejabat Pembuat Komitmen, PPK). Moreover, since PPK has various academic disciplines, evidence shows that many PPK from local government agencies are reluctant to be assigned as a PPK because they are concerned about their lack of understanding of basic construction knowledge and its consequences. This paper aims to identify the importance level of PPK’s technical competency in managing public construction projects. In this study, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to PPK from East Java, Southeast Sulawesi, and Gorontalo provinces, and interviews were conducted to confirm the results. The findings show that having technical competency is necessary for PPK regardless of their academic disciplines. However, they do not need to understand every single detail of the construction project, but they are expected to understand a big picture of construction methods that enable them to act as a knowledgeable contributor in the construction delivery. This study contributes to the existing knowledge of project manager competency by providing insight into project manager from the client-side in the public construction projects.