Investigating the role of procurement practices in effective implementation of infrastructure projects in a developing country: a case of Pakistan

This research investigated the role of procurement practices in effective implementation of infrastructure projects in a developing country like Pakistan. It investigated and explored the issues and barriers to effective implementation of different procurement methods that the organisations used, the environment and its suitability for implementing different forms of procurement in context of public sector in Pakistan and the relationship it had to successful project outcomes. <br><br>The research was carried out in two stages. In the first stage archival analysis was conducted of government documents, reports including reports by international organisations, policy documents and literature. As a result of this it was found that there are two different methods of procurement used for procuring infrastructure projects in public sector in Pakistan i.e. the traditional method for example competitive design-bid-build and the non-traditional method for example Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). <br><br>During the second stage case studies were selected based on archival analysis. A total of 6 public sector organisations had been selected as organisational case studies and 8 projects had been selected among these organisations as project case studies. Out of the 6 organisations 5 were federal government and 1 provincial government organisation. The organisational coverage of sub-sectors of infrastructure includes transport, water and power sub-sectors. Geographically the organisations and projects covered all four provinces and tribal areas as well as the state of Azad and Jammu Kashmir. Projects were selected on the basis of procurement method. <br><br>Out of the total 8, 3 of the projects were on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), 2 projects on Build-Own-Operate (BOO), 1 project on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) (only BOOT project in Pakistan) and 2 projects on traditional method of procurement were selected. A total of 24 respondents participated from these 6 organisations. The case studies were analysed using qualitative content analysis techniques of the in depth interviews. Cross case analysis had also been carried out based on looking at the similarities and differences across similar as well as different methods of procurement. <br><br>As a result multiple issues have been identified which affected the choice of procurement. The barriers and constraints to implementation of procurement have also been described in detail. It was reported that the procurement practice had a direct impact on successful project outcomes in case of public sector infrastructure projects in Pakistan. As a result of this analysis a road map of the on going processes and practice of procurement in public sector in Pakistan has been created which vividly portrays the issues and barriers of the procurement practice in Pakistan.<br>