Regional Seminar Proceedings 1990

10.1 REPORTING FORMS

All programmes have developed their own reporting system, often based on systems used in other established programmes then adapted to suit their own special circumstances. However, a stage may have been reached when sites are generating information and completing forms which may not be used by office staff. Even if the information is used by the office staff it may not be fed back to the sites to enable action to be taken on the site performance.

Perhaps a more satisfactory system would be to reduce the number of forms issued to site and ensure that the information gathered would be useful to management and site staff. A basic two form system of reporting could be introduced using a weekly form and a monthly form. The results from the weekly form could be fed back to the sites on a weekly basis, and the monthly report submitted to management for overall appraisal.

The Botswana programme is using a reporting system with diagrams to clearly indicate the site performance on the feed back to the sites. They are requesting only 4 forms to be completed on site.

On many reporting forms for use on site there is also a planning section to assist the foremen/overseers to plan the days work. Most participants felt that the planning part of the form should only remain in use during training and that once the foreman/overseer had gained sufficient experience in site organisation it should be removed, leaving the reporting section only.

10.2 ILO MICRO MANAGEMENT PACKAGE (MMP)

10.2.1 SETTING UP THE MMP

There is a new manual now available from ILO Geneva which should enable anyone to set up the MMP system on their computer. It has been designed to asssist everyone, even those people with no previous computer experience. A request was made for a tutorial disc. A demostration disc is already available beased on a roads project in Mafeteng but a complete tutorial disc could be considered.

The MMP should be delivered to projects before the beginning of construction to avoid any backlog of information building up which would be time consuming to enter. The recruitement or secondment of a suitable operator should also be dealt with at the start of the project.

10.2.2 MANUAL REPORTING SYSTEM

Many participants expressed fears that dependence on the computer alone could create problems therefore most were in favour of a back-up manual system using the same forms and information as the computerised MMP. In Zambia, where the roads programme is operated on a district basis, it could be impractical introduce computers in each district. The districts could continue manually and at Regional or National level the results could be combined using computer.

The Tanzanian Rural Roads Engineers present were interested in adopting a parallel system of manual and computer reporting.

10.2.3 SUSTAINABILITY OF THE MMP

As with all road programmes one of the important issues is the sustainability of any system introduced using donor funds. The MMP was designed as a management tool to be left with the national organisation once the donor finance and expertise was withdrawn. The back-up of a manual system could help in the event of a failure in the computer system, however the MMP has been deliberately designed so that it can be operated by a trained clerk or secretary and will not therefore rely on the engineer in charge of road rehabilitation being able to set aside time to enter the data.

Problems such as the continued gathering of information from the site and the feedback to the site can affect the sustainability of both the computerised and manual system. Some of the participants felt that as computers will be more and more in use, in all parts of the world and in all sectors of industry, we should accept this and consider making good use of this versatile tool. Encouragement in training in the use of the computers as a managment tool should continue and help to ensure sustainability.

10.2.4 OUTPUT AND COMPARISON

The MMP is a project based program therefore the input and output can be tailored to suit the type of construction activity i.e. dam builiding, irrigation schemes, maintenance activities etc.

Using the MMP will give a certain uniformity in the presentation of results from site work. This uniformity will enable easier comparison of projects between different areas or countries. (This could, on a regional scale, provide healthy competition between districts based on their comparative results). Having comparable information may highlight differences in performance that could be fed back by national headquarters or ILO to the individual project's managers.

The monthly output from the MMP includes a cost report for the month and the cumulative total for the project up to the end of that month.

These figures are to provide the manager with an estimate of cost compared to progress and the distribution of costs within the project. They are not an auditable accounts statement.

The program may have limitations when used in a region employing both machine-based and labour-based techniques. In this case additional forms may be required to cover the machine-based section.

10.3 GENERAL COMMENTS

When engaged in a national programme it is important to identify who needs what information. The mandays per metre of ditching is information that is of interest at site level in order to highlight problems which affect overall output. (There could be a danger that detailed information such as the number of mandays per metre of ditching is passed on to headquaters who are interested in the overall outputs and costs.

10.4 AGREED PLANS FOR ACTION, MONITORING AND CONTROL