Public works are the construction or engineering
projects carried out by the
state on
behalf of the
community.
Overview
"Public works" is a concept in
economics
and
politics. The term public
infrastructure refers only to the
infrastructural capital involved in
these activities.
An internal improvement is some
constructed object that augments a nation's
economic infrastructure; examples include
airports,
canals,
dams,
dikes,
pipelines,
railroads,
roads,
tunnels, and artificial
harbours.
Public works is a slightly broader term, it can include
such things as:
mine,
schools,
hospitals,
water purification and
sewage treatment centers. Municipal
infrastructure,
urban
infrastructure and
rural
development are often used interchangeably but imply either
large cities or
developing
nations' concerns respectively. The terms public infrastructure
or
critical infrastructure
are also used interchangeably but suggest the inclusion of some
facilities like hospitals, banks and concerns like
national security and terrorism which are
not under the mandate of local officials alone.
Furthermore, the term
Public works has recently been
expanded to include digital public infrastructure projects. The
first (US) nationwide digital public works project is an effort to
create an open source software platform for e-voting (created and
managed by the
OSDV).
Reflecting
increased concern with sustainability, urban ecology and quality of life, efforts to move towards
sustainable
municipal infrastructure are common in developed nations, especially in European Union and Canada
(where the
FCM InfraGuide provides an officially
mandated best practice
exchange to move municipalities in this
direction).
Public works programmes
A
public works programme (PWP) is the provision of
employment by the creation of predominantly
public goods at a prescribed wage for those
unable to find alternative employment. This functions as a form of
social safety net. PWPs are
activities which entail the payment of a wage (in cash or in kind)
by the state, or by an
agent acting on
behalf of the state, in return for the provision of labour. These
activities have the aim of enhancing employment or producing an
asset (either physical or social), with the overall objective of
providing
social protection.
As a study by the
Overseas Development
Institute has concluded, the majority of public works
initiatives in developing countries offer either food or cash in
return for physical labour and are known as food-for-work (FFW) or
cash-for work (CFW). One particular form of public works, that of
offering a short-term period of employment, has come to dominate
practice, particularly in regions such as
Sub-Saharan Africa. Applied in the
short-term, this is appropriate as a response to transient shocks
and acute labour market crises.
Utility of investment
While it is argued that internal improvements can be used to reduce
unemployment, opponents of internal improvement programs argue that
such projects should be undertaken by the
private sector, and not the
public sector, because public works projects
are characteristic of
socialism. However,
in the private sector, entrepreneurs bear their own losses and so
private sector firms are generally unwilling to undertake projects
that could result in losses. Since it is politically unpopular for
governments to use public revenues to bail out private firms that
lose money, many times the preferred alternative is to have
governments undertake unprofitable projects directly. Consequently,
almost all significant infrastructure in the U.S., including the
Transcontinental Railroad,
the
Tennessee Valley
Authority, and the
Interstate Highway System, were
created through federal investment (often employing private
subcontractors).
Since the disappearance of the Berlin Wall
, large public works are more and more being
associated with the opening of internal frontiers, as in the case
of the Erie Canal and Trans-Siberian Railway.[
]
Corruption, cost overrun and demand shortfall
Cost overruns and
demand shortfalls frequently haunt public
works projects. The main causes of cost overrun and demand
shortfall are
optimism bias and
strategic
misrepresentation (Flyvbjerg et al. 2002, 2005).
Reference class forecasting was
developed to curb optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation and
thus arrive at more accurate cost and demand estimates. Public
works projects can be prone to corrupt practices in the form of
waste, crony contracts and theft of funds and materials. Generally
a system of
public tenders and
construction supervision by
reputable engineering or architectural firms is used to reduce the
risk of corrupt practices.
According to the research conducted at the Aalburg University, 86%
of the public works often end up with cost overruns. Peculiars
found in the research were that
- technically difficult projects did not ended up more exceedings
of the budget than technically easy projects
- projects in which more people where directly and indirectly
affected by the project turned out to be more susceptible to cost
overruns
- the projects generally did not learn from similar projects
attempted in the past
Sources and further reading
- Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl (2002), "Underestimating Costs in Public Works
Projects: Error or Lie?" Journal of the American Planning Association, vol.
68, no. 3, 279-295.
- Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl (2005), "How (In)accurate Are Demand Forecasts in
Public Works Projects?" Journal of the American Planning Association, vol.
71, no. 2, 131-146.
- "Political Economy of Very Large Space Projects",
Journal of Evolution and Technology. vol. 4.
November 1999.
- When the Public Works: Generating Employment and Social
Protection in Ethiopia, Peter
Middlebrook , Lambert Academic Publishing. 2009. ISBN-13:
978-3838306728
See also
References
- The TrustTheVote Project http://www.trustthevote.org
- List of public projects with cost overruns
- Natuurwetenschap & Techniek Magazine April 2009
- http://members.home.nl/menno.visser/japaflyvbjerg.pdf Project
peculiars]
External links
Some public works communities