25% of Government Projects Dissatisfactory

One out of four government-backed projects failed to meet required standards last year.

This is according to an audit carried out by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. The ministry assessed 275 projects led by 37 government ministries and agencies, and rated 24.4 percent, or 67 projects, as “insufficient” or “highly insufficient.” Those poorly conducted projects will be scrapped or have their budgets cut down, the ministry said Friday. A committee in the ministry, which is in charge of assessing government operations, judged each project based on such criteria as planning (30 points), execution (20 points) and achievement (50 points).

A project to expand facilities for the elderly spearheaded by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs saw its execution rate only reach 34.7 percent. The evaluation committee said the Health Ministry should revamp the project.

The Defense Ministry’s military facility transfer project was found to have reached only 52.6 percent of execution rate. The ministry has moved five facilities out of the planned eight facilities.

By grade, “very good” and “good” (over 80 points) made up 17.8 percent, “average” (60 to 79 points) accounted for 57.8 percent, and “insufficient” and “highly insufficient” accounted for 24.4 percent. The corresponding figures for 2006 were 41.6 percent, 55.0 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

“As the ministry has made some changes in grades by raising the “good” grade from 70 points to 80 points and “insufficient” from less than 50 to less than 60, the share of projects that received excellent grades dropped and that of below the standard grew,” a ministry official said.

By sector, economy-related organizations including the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries got the highest score with 70.9 points on average, followed by the administrative sector with 69.1 points and the social sector with 64 points.

As the Finance Ministry plans to reflect the results in drawing up the budget plan for 2009, those projects with “good” grades will see their budget increase while the “insufficient” ones will face more than a 10 percent reduction in budget. In the case of those with “highly insufficient” points will be subject to either a 10 percent budget reduction or the outright abolition of the project.

The average point for 2007 was 68.2, similar to 68 points in 2006.

peacechaos@donga.com