A Case Study on the Problems and Prospects of Output and Performance Based Road Contracting (OPRC) in Ethiopia

摘要

The government of Ethiopia has given significant attention to the road sector considering its immense impact on the socio-economic development of the country as road transport reaches the majority of the people. In this respect, the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) is mainly responsible for the construction and maintenance of federal road networks of the country. The road maintenance and construction practice of ERA is predominantly based on the conventional method of quantity and unit rate based by which several works are planned and carried out. The government has faced problems in maintaining the serviceability of road infrastructure systems by using these traditional methods of contracting. However, in recent years other alternative contracting methods are attempted including output and performance based road contracting (OPRC) in the Ethiopian road sector. These types of procurement methods have a substantial success records in many developed and developing countries. Nonetheless, taking the long term nature of the contract into account, OPRC projects require careful planning and capacity from the contracting authority and the contractor to implement it successfully. Hence, this study assessed the problems and prospects of a pilot OPRC project in Ethiopia based on interview of professionals involved in the project. The contractors and the client have been facing many problems in the implementation of the OPRC project and it may be concluded that the project may not be successful unless corrective measures can be taken by both parties to negate the defaults committed by the parties in the contract. Moreover, strong international and local private companies are required to implement such projects successfully otherwise there will be serious challenges to develop future PPP road projects in Ethiopia.