AN ASSESSMENT ON THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION: THE CASE OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN ETHIOPIAN ROAD AUTHORITY

Abstract

Monitoring and Evaluation of projects is one of the key processes of project management through the gathering of information and assessment of it to determine whether progress is being made towards pre-specified goals and objectives and to highlight whether there are any unintended (positive or negative) effects from a project and its activities. This study aims to assess the practices and challenges of monitoring and evaluation in construction of road projects: the case of Ethiopian Road Authority- Spacifically how the practices of monitoring and evaluation of road construction projects look like?, What are the main challenges of monitoring and evaluating road construction projects?, How the practice of monitoring and evaluation of institutional learning and knowledge sharing look like? And How monitoring and evaluation exercised to come up accountability?. To meet these objectives, the researcher has used a descriptive survey design and the data was collected from both secondary and primary sources (questionnaires). Survey questionnaires were distributed to 83 samples of employees which are selected from 172 employees used as target population from eight directories using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS version 20 and presented using tables. A Cronbach alpha test was conducted to measure the internal consistency and reliability of the data collection instruments and was found out to be reliable Since the alpha values of all 50 items are 0.754 and were above 0.7. The result shows that performance management and project improvement are the motivations for monitoring projects. Presence of good Culture of disseminating monitoring & evaluation findings, employees understanding on M&E guiding, framework and manual to harmonize M&E concepts as well as their ethicality in time of conducting M&E and presence of a culture of institutional learning and knowledge sharing as areas that ERA doing better on the contrary inaccuracy in data collection, less and inconsistent involvement of stakeholders, inadequate field visit in the project site, less attention of top management to M&E, insufficient allocation of resources and lack of M&E expertise and IT system are the main challenges that hamper proper implementation of M&E in ERA are assessed. Finally, to conduct effective project monitoring and evaluation, this study recommends that it is important to providing training for employees on M&E related topics to building their capacity, arrange organization through adequate staff, required & sufficient quantity and quality of resources, conduct a regular and appropriate field visit to collect detailed data/information, consistently involve stakeholders in M&E. It is also vital to expand the use of innovative and technology guided approaches to M&E to increase project performance. Continuous programs to build the capacity of both managers and expertise in project management with an emphasis on M&E activities helps to overcome some of the main M&E challenges.