ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ASSESSING THE PRACTICE OF PROJECT CLOSURE:

EVIDENCE FROM WATER SUPPLY AND
SANITATION PROJECTS
By Sahle Tilahun

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ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF COMMERCE DEPARTMENT
OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ASSESSING THE PRACTICE OF PROJECT CLOSURE:

EVIDENCE FROM WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION
PROJECTS

Masters Project Thesis Report for the Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for Master of Arts (MA) Degree in Project Management

By: Sahle Tilahun: ID No. GSD/0529/07

Advisor: Dereje Teklemariam, PhD

June 2018
Addis Ababa
 Acronyms and Abbreviations
AA: Audit Authority

AAU: Addis Ababa University

AAUSC: Addis Ababa University School of Commerce

CP: Cohesion Policy

CRGE: Climate Resilient Green Economy

CV: Coefficient of Variance

EC: European Commission

EU: European Union

EIB: European Investment Bank

FEI: Financial Engineering Instrument

GTP: Growth and Transformation Plan

MA: Master of Arts, Managing Authority

MDG: Millennium Development Goals

MoFEC: Ministry of Finance & Economic Cooperation

MoWIE: Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity

MS: Member States

NAO: National Authorizing Office

OP: Operational Program

PASDEP: Plan for Accelerated & Sustainable Development to End Poverty

SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

S.M.A.R.T: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely

TWSSO: Town for Water Supply & Sanitation Office

WSSO: Water Supply & Sanitation Office

 BSTRACT

This study is about the case of the Water Supply & Sanitation projects enabled to validate that
the closure phase is the most neglected among the four main phases of project management,
which requires the attention of specially project team. The study realized that projects practiced
only signing of Provisional & Final Acceptance Certificates using financer’s format, handing
over outputs & holding retention fund. At project closure phase, both contractual and
administrative closures need to be performed respectively. The interview results justified the
absence of standard project closure practices, such as detailed closure planning, no termination
report (fig 4.1.1), use of standard templates, draw & archive lessons, release of remaining
resources, freeing or retaining project personnel, etc. To initiate the project closure, a closure
report should first be created; followed by approval of customer. Delay of closure created 17%
dissatisfaction of beneficiaries. There is no awareness about the benefits of lessons to be drawn;
stakeholders could not able to learn from the projects’ success or failures. The study enhances
awareness & knowledge; where 83% of the respondents did not have knowledge about each
benefit & developing training course manual for internal use. It needs to encourage project
stakeholders to get the necessary feedback timely, as the study revealed that 73% of respondents
were neutral about contractual closure. Further study may be important on the significance of
financial implication on delayed release of resources during closure and study on the practices
of knowledge transfer level from past lessons to current similar projects.

Key words: Project closure, project delay, project stakeholders, closure planning

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 I. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 . Background of the Study

According to Project Management Institute (2018), project is a temporary intervention with

specified starting & ending time, and distinct scope and resources. It is unique action, & specific
set of operations intended to achieve a remarkable objective. A project management team usually
comprises persons who sometimes come from different organizations and across multiple
geographic locations to work in a team. Such teams to deliver quality results timely & within
budget organizations need to knowledgeably manage projects. Project management, then, is the
application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques in project executions to meet the project
requirements. According to Gartner (2017), project closure phase is the fourth and last phase in
the project life cycle (initiating, planning, execution, and closing) of project management which
is the roadmap for achieving it.

Closure phase signifies the completed project. Contractors hired to work explicitly on the project
are terminated at this time. Important team members are renowned. Some project managers even
establish minor work events for people who involved in the project to acknowledge them for
their energies. When a project is completed, a project manager will usually hold a meeting to
evaluate what went right in a project and detect project failures. It is particularly useful to
comprehend lessons gained so that improvements can be made for future projects. Once the
project is complete, Project Managers still have a few tasks to complete. They will need to create
a project punch-list of things that didn’t get accomplished during the project execution and work
with team members to complete them. Perform a final project payment and prepare a final
project report. At the end it needs to collect all project documents and deliverables to store them
in a separate place (Pradip 2018).

Many appear to think that closure of project is unnecessary phase in project management, which
is not appropriate (Pradip 2018). The role of project closure is multi-folds; of which major ones
includes identify reason for early termination of some unsuccessful projects, learn lessons from
project & applies them to future projects throughout a business, confirm that the work is done to
satisfy a set of agreed requirements, enables to complete the procurement & financial closure, to

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gain financial acceptance, to transfer final deliverables to users, solicit feedback from the
customer, to index and archive records, etc.

The application of the standard project management phases enhances the realization of important
& complex projects such as water supply infrastructures. Access to safe water supply &
sanitation services in Ethiopia are among the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the national
water and sanitation coverage were 42% & 28% respectively in 2006. This situation was
estimated to be improved during the PASDEP (2005-2010) and GTP I where its objective was to
increase access to clean water to 84% in 2014/15. To curb such severe situations, subsequent,
efficient & effective water supply & sanitation projects need to be implemented. Projects are to
be closed after report is produced & approved to declare its formal closure by the client &
financer. Closure action usually include the approval and transfer of the project deliverables to
the user or customer by which a project be considered as closed. The aim of this phase is to
communicate all stakeholders whether the project has met its intended objectives or not, and
extra costs will be required or not of a project. Furthermore, the staff and other resources can be
assigned to other projects, or released free. Delivering projects on time, quality and within
budget is critical to a business success and project management knowledge/skill, therefore, is
highly valued in graduates and managers alike. At a closure phase an evaluation report takes in
to account checking project relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact
(AAUSC 2016).

As per the explanation from Westland (2006), more than 90% of projects implemented fail to
independently review the extent of success at project termination. Project closure is neglected to
avoid extra costs & time needed to formally close the project and to review an extent of
achievement. If a project owner gives emphasis to complete the phase, he/she will not only close
timely & efficiently, but get lessons that can benefit the next projects. In a construction’ project,
the project life cycle includes awarding of a contract to a contractor for a building. The project
life cycle ends when the output is handed over by a contractor to the owner of a building & pays
all bills.

Contractual closure should come first and followed by administrative closure. It involves
accepting all completed works, releasing guarantees and licenses from all subcontractors and

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vendors, resolving all disputes, paying bills. For physical assets, it marks the point where the
asset is handed over to the accounting department for depreciation purposes. It also marks the
point where all contract accounts should be closed out so that no more time/money can be
charged against the project and any excess funds turned back.

Administrative closure is primarily an internal process, only done once per phase, after
procurement closure, whereby the project manager, hands over the completed output to the end
user, provides the necessary training and starts any guaranty work. In both instances, there
should be a final capture/review of lessons cultured (Akshata, Bergh, Brady, Tristan & 2015).

The Water Supply and Sanitation Projects are part of MDG 7 and Growth & Transformation
Plan for sustainable access to safe drinking water & sanitation. Potable water which is critical for
human life can adequately developed and made available for people through efficient project
execution (MoWIE 2008). These projects were aimed to provide potable water that were planned
to be implemented in 2014 at 15 selected towns (Bonga, Demidollo, Holeta, Sodo, Motta,
Injibara, Shoa-Robit, Ataye, Kemissie, Mersa, Wereillu, Fiche, Gebre-Guracha, Adigrat &
Maychew), which suffered from shortage of safe drinking water and water-borne diseases. The
number of beneficiaries is about one million people living in these small rural towns. The total
projects cost was about 38 million euros financed jointly by the European Investment Bank
(EIB) loan and European Union (EU) support. The client of the projects is Ministry of Water,
Irrigation & Electricity and the respective towns Water Supply & Sanitation Offices. The work
supervising firm is Nicholas O’Dwyer Ltd. The original contractor was an Italian based company
called Mathioli. The projects executions were commenced in 2014 and completed in May 2017,
with a delay of about two years from their original plans after the change of the poor
performance of the contractor (MoWIE 2007).

In May 2017, most of the civil works and installations completed and then Provisional
Acceptances Signed in August 2017. Handover of these projects’ water supply services was the
necessary closure practice for the beneficiaries to use of safe water. This study dealt with
describing the level of emphasis given to closure practices of the projects. The study also
motivated by the practices of overlooking projects closure phase, lessons that could be gained,

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timeliness of use output/water, & resource release which considerably can impair beneficiaries
satisfaction (Pradip 2018).

1.2. Statement of the Problem

For a project to deliver successfully an intended objective, it needs to properly follow the
standard project management lifecycle, including closure phase. Failure to perform proper
project closure can result in missing to confirm satisfying set of agreed requirements, unable to
transfer final deliverables, miss readiness of handover, tying up a contractor’s guarantee &
payment of balance, lead to interest fee and overlooking lessons to be gained. If a project
management fail to give due emphasis to project management from initiation to closure, it is
unlikely to achieve its desired objective, rather it may lead to incur additional costs (Westland
2006). By the time the project is over, many stakeholders, including the project team, turn their
attention to the next project neglecting closure practices. Clients, sometimes lose focus by the
time there is confidence that the bulk of the work has been done and deliverables have been
received. According to Brockmeier (2017), closing projects is one of the most overlooked
processes in the discipline of project management. For a project to be successful, it needs to
properly identify/initiate, plan, execute & close it. The required impact of the Water Supply and
Sanitation Project for 15 Towns will not be achieved and will not add value to the community as
it failed to respect schedule in providing safe water. It also not enables to overcome water born
disease problems as closing and handing over get delayed. Failure to proper closure hinders
release of remaining resources. Lessons will not be gained from the project as proper closure
report preparation & recording be overlooked. Absence of proper closure will delay handing over
of the water facilities leading to lose the benefits of proper project closure. Hence, this study
examined the level of emphasis given to project closure.
People are often inclined to archive information, especially communications, for defensive
purposes. But this is not about archiving simply to have a record or paper trail as proof of some
evidence. Project information and data are likely to be helpful in the future often goes beyond the
thoughts and reflections captured as part of a lessons learned exercise. Without some intention
about gathering that data, communications, records, etc., there is a missed opportunity to easily
go back to refresh memories on what happened in order to answer questions or get input into
new decisions.

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Project proper closure identifies reasons for early termination of unsuccessful projects, learn
lessons from project & applies them to future projects throughout a business, confirm that the
work is done to satisfy a set of agreed requirements, enables to complete the procurement &
financial closure, gain acceptance of the right expenditure, to transfer final deliverables to users,
solicit feedback from the customer, release remaining resource, avoid extra expenses that may
arise by delayed release of finance, index and archive records and relevant for the sustainability
of the project output. Therefore, the study identifies how much attention and care were provided
for proper closure.

The unknown gap is based on the analysis of knowledge gaps (i.e., the gap between what we
should know in order to succeed in the project and what we really know). It seems there is huge
gap between principles practices of closure. The practices are not because of principles, but
might be due to financer’s requirement. It is expected there is no adequate knowledge,
experience and facilities at project team. Moreover, awareness gap in capturing lessons learned
& transfer, valuing gap of timely transferring deliverables, interest on delayed payment contract,
knowledge gap on the difference between contract & administrative closure, every elements of
steps specially in both closure type are not well known by most project team, it may signifies to
teach project teams about details of closure as one key requirement for project sustainable
benefits.

1.3. Research Questions

This study gave answer to the following specific questions

• What is the tradition and practice of project closure in the context of Water Supply
& Sanitation Projects? (experience)
• Does the project management team/client have, closure plan, the necessary facilities and
knowledge for performing proper project closure? (schedule, expertise & experience)
• What are the benefits of conducting proper project closure and were project team
and client aware of the benefits? (merits & awareness)

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1.4. Research Objective

1.4.1. General Objective

The overall aim of the study is to assess the practices of project closure and make
recommendations for sustainable project benefits.

1.4.2. Specific Objectives

Specifically the study tries to address the following key research objectives:

• To explore the project closure tradition and practice in the context of Water Supply &
Sanitation Projects,
• To assess the closure plan, facilities and knowledge of project team/client for conducting
proper project closure,
• To evaluate the benefits & its awareness of standard project closure,

1.5. Significance of the Study

• The study provides an understanding of the traditional closure practice in the context of
Water Supply & Sanitation Projects and standard project closure practices in Ethiopia
• To analyze the traditional and standard project closure principles and contribute to public
policy formulation
• The study tries to contributes to the development of academic knowledge for better future
project management.

1.6. Scope of the Study

Conceptually the scope of this study concentrated on evaluating the current practices of project
closure in the context of the Water Supply and Sanitation Projects. The lessons drawn from the
project are very important for the sector in particular and project closure practices in general.
This study is conducted on the sample from the fifteen towns where the Water Supply and
Sanitation Projects were implemented based on the information collected from these project
coordinating offices, MoWIE, financers, other relevant institutions and beneficiary communities.

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The period of the study based mainly on the time when the original project contract signed for
commencement of construction work in October 2014 (which was terminated in 2015 due to
poor performance) to the completion of works of the second contracts in May 2017, where
provisional acceptance were followed August 2017.

1.7. Limitation of the Study

The limitations of the study which impacted the depth of assessing literature review for critical
analysis was in the projects progress reports some data were incomplete and not used standard
tables for data presentation and many unrelated data were put in one table (appendix III). There
was lack of respondents on phone calls during an interview on top of network interruptions.
Moreover, biasedness of some beneficiaries observed, who were overlooking the project
shortcomings after getting clean water.

1.8. Ethical Consideration

Ethics is a standard behavior which guides moral choices about human behavior and relationship
with others. Hence, in conducting this study no one is penalized/suffers adverse consequences or
accused as a result of this research. There will be no violation of non-disclosure and breaking
respondent confidentiality & misrepresenting results.

1.9. Organization of Research Report

The study report comprised five main chapters. Chapter one dealt with introduction which
discussed about the background of the study, statement of the problem, & research questions. It
also identified research objective, significance of the study, the scope, limitations of the study
and ethical considerations. The second chapter presented review of related literatures where
internet websites, reports of the projects, other sources were examined. The third chapter
contains research methodology which specified area of the study, research design, data type,
source, target population sampling, data collection methods, data analysis & presentation. The
fourth chapter is about the results and discussions of the analysis. Finally, the study included
conclusion and recommendations in chapter five.

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 II. CHAPRET TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Theoretical Review

Today, where competition is high and technologies are changing fast, businesses need to
continuously update themselves if they are to operate sustainably. Such competitive interventions
necessitate the development of project approaches. A project can be defined as peculiar set of
coordinated activities, executed by an individual or company to meet specific objectives with
definite starting & finishing time (AAUSC, 2011). It is also defined as a scientifically grew
action plan intended to achieve a unique objective within specified shedule. In general a project
is a set of proposals for an investment of resources in to clearly identified set of actions which
are expected to produce future benefits of a specific type. A project is a sum series of activities
being the subject of separate planning & scrutiny before being adapted and implemented within a
sole overall financial & managerial structure. According to Project Management Institute (2018),
a project is temporary intervention with defined starting & ending time, and distinct scope and
resources. It is unique action, & specific set of operations aimed to achieve a notable objective.
To deliver project outputs within time, budget and quality, organizations need to manage
skillfully. Project management, then, is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and
techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. The four main phases of project
management provide a high-level view of projects; which are the roadmaps for achieving
objectives. If projects are to sustainably deliver the required result, it needs to follow proper
management of the four project phases, i.e. initiation, planning, execution and closure (Gartner
2017).

The four main phases of project management:

a/ Project initiation is the starting point of a project, and the aim of this phase is to define the
project at broad level. This phase mostly begins with a business case; where study will determine
whether a project is feasible and would be undertaken. If viability testing desires to be done, this
is the stage of the project in which it will be finalized.

b/ Project planning phase is critical to effective project management and stresses on formulating
a roadmap that everyone will follow. This phase classically deals with setting goals. One of the

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common approaches for setting goals is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Timely. In
this step, the scope of a project defined and a project management plan is established. It involves
identifying the cost, quality, available resources, and a realistic timetable. The project plans also
include establishing baselines or performance measures. These are generated using the scope,
schedule and cost of a project. A baseline is important to determine if a project is on track. Roles
and responsibilities of stakeholder are clearly defined at this point; so everyone involved knows
what they are accountable for. Scope statement, work breaks down, milestone gantt-chart,
communication plan, risk management plan & closure plan are some of the documents a project
management needs to create during this phase for ensuring a project objective.

c/ Project execution is a phase where deliverables are established and completed. This often
finalizes the body of the project as a lot happen through this time, like progress reports &
meetings, development updates, and performance reports. A “kick-off” meeting usually marks
the commencement of project execution phase, where the teams involved are informed of their
responsibilities. During this step it needs to develop project team, assign resources, execute
project management plans, procurement, and tracking systems, update project schedule, gather
data for lessons, etc.

d/ Project closure is the last phase where a project team needs to give emphasis same to all other
project phases in managing it. Specifically this phase is the most neglected phase which needs
project team to pay attention for better benefit (Westland 2006). Project closure is a phenomenon
of every project which is last phase in the cycle. It can be applied at early-termination or at
project completion. Early-termination may occur, because parties may agree to stop the project
before its planned activities completion; a negotiated settlement may take place. Default often results
from a problem with the project’s cost, schedule, or performance. Buyer can also decide to terminate
a project early because he or she has lost confidence in the contractor who is performing the project
which encountered by these case study projects. The convenience of the buyer can also happen
through no fault of the contractor as the buyer may faces unexpected difficulties or changing
priorities. It might decide that the resources assigned to a project could be more profitably applied to
a different project. Project managers need to present the facts of project progress and make
recommendations for early termination, if they feel it is warranted. If a decision is made to terminate
a project early, the project manager owes it to his or her team to communicate quickly and honestly.

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Care needs to be taken to ensure that no unjust blame is placed. Once a decision is made and
communicated to terminate a project early, much of the remaining work is similar to that for a project
that finishes as planned. The project manager may need to negotiate with the customer if some of the
deliverables or documentation is not completed. At project closure phase, both contractual and
administrative closures need to be performed, where the former precedes. Contracts made for
work explicitly on the project are terminated. Some project managers establish minor work
events for people who involved in the project to acknowledge them for their energies. At project
completion, a project manager will usually hold a meeting to evaluate what went right in a
project and detect project failures. It is particularly useful to grasp lessons gained so that
improvements can be made for future projects. Once the project is complete, project managers
still have a few tasks to finalize. They need to create a project punch-list of things that didn’t get
accomplished during the project and work with team members to complete them. Perform a final
project payment and prepare a final project report. At the end, it needs to collect all project
documents and store them in a separate place.

2.1.1. Termination Phase

In most cases project managers or clients overlook the importance of project closure phase when
implementation ends; they turn their attention to the next project (Brockmeier, 2017). Project
closure encompass vital elements such as turnover of deliverables to operations, redeployment of
resources (staff, facilities, equipment) closing financial accounts, archiving projects records,
documenting success & lessons gained and carryout post implementation review. These
important tasks can be executed when implementation is over & decision is made for closure.
Before any employee is officially transferred all project equipment turned over, outstanding
issues particularly financial bills settled. However, as per Westland (2006) findings, more than
90% of projects implemented fail to independently review the extent of success at the end of
termination. This could be to avoid cost & time additionally needed to formally close the project
and review its extent of achievement. If a project owner allocates fund & time to complete the
phase, he/she will not only close timely & efficiently, but get lessons that can benefit to the next
project. The purpose of a lessons learned process is to define the activities required to
successfully capture and apply lessons learned. Often organizations have a defined process for
capturing lessons but do not include activities to ensure lessons are used. To initiate the project

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closure, a project closure report should first be created. This report lists all of the closure
activities and identifies the resource responsible for each activity listed. Following the approval
of the report by the customer, the activities identified are actually undertaken to close the project.
For a closeout reports and archiving project records, some organizations have formal procedures.
The closeout report usually includes a summary status of the project that can be gathered from
progress reports. Usually lessons learned included in the closeout report. Finally, the closeout
report often contains a review of the project’s original justification and check if a project
accomplishes what it was originally approved to do. This is important issue because many
projects change along the line. The exact timing, costs, and deliverables may have changed, but
if the project still accomplish its goals. Finally, the project manager needs to ensure that the
records are in a workable format and stored in a manner that will allow others in the organization
access for lessons learned, financial audits, or other uses. Organizations often create templates
for closeout reports such as the one in figure 2.1.1.

This deliverable, required for each small project, contains the project charter, the original work
breakdown structure, summary of monthly progress reports, and client feedback summary.

Project Summary Report for Project …………….

Task Description Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Comments
i. Project charter updated and included
ii.Original WBS included
iii.Monthly progress report summary
included
iv.Client feedback summary included

Fig. 2.1.1. Closeout template

After lessons learned are captured, they should be reported to project stakeholders. Different
types of reports should be produced based on the audience. Some lessons may have to be
restricted to specific reports because of their sensitive nature. The report could be of various
types depending on its purpose. The comprehensive lessons learned report consists of the data
captured during the lessons learned session and any additional input from participants who were

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not able to attend. The facilitator should distribute the detailed lessons learned report to all
participants with enough time to respond to the accuracy of the report. After the report is
finalized, the project team should receive a copy. Report is a one-page brief for management
summarizing the findings and providing recommendations for correcting the findings. It should
present an overview of the lessons learned process and a summary of project strengths, what
went right, project weaknesses, what went wrong and recommendations, what we need to
improve & specifics can also be included by category. The detailed report can be included as an
attachment or made available in the event leadership needs more information. The findings
which are summary of the issues need to be available during the review process.
Recommendations are actions to be taken to correct findings. The approved actions should be
documented and tracked to completion. In some cases the approved action may become a project
due to high level of resources required to address such specific finding and end within certain
period. Summarized reports can be presented by facilitator to executives and more detailed
reports to the project manager or team. Lessons learned can also be shared with other project
teams during learning sessions. Newsletter articles, white papers, or other communication
vehicles can be used to share project successes. The lessons learned reports with the other project
documentation need to be kept in safe place by project team. The termination phase typically
involves disbandment of the project team, personnel and tools to be reassigned to new duties,
resources released back to parent organization and project transferred to intended users.

Stakeholders validate that scope is complete with interim deliverables throughout the project and
with final deliverables near the end. When the stakeholders formally accept the final project
deliverables, the project finishes the executing stage and proceeds into the closing and realizing
stages. Often, a few things are not yet finished, and these can form a “punch list” of items to
complete. If the punch list is small enough, as a customer agree to formally take possession of an
output subject to the contractor finishing the punch list items. Once formally agree the work is
complete and agree to take possession, the output becomes an accepted deliverable. However, if
there are major concerns and/or a long punch list, we may decide not to formally accept the
output until certain things are complete. Most projects are like this: The customer only formally
accepts the deliverables once he or she is convinced they will work as planned. At that point, the
buyer provides the seller with a formal written acceptance, and the project transitions from the

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executing stage to the closing stage. Project managers need to ensure that all work on their
project has been successfully completed. They can refer back to the charter, scope statement,
WBS, schedule, and all communications plans to verify that everything they said they would do
is actually done. Many organizations also use project closeout checklists that itemize typical
project activities and/or deliverables. These can be used to assign responsibility to each item
concerning project closeout.

According to Livingston (2018), good project closures are typically born from the successful
delivery of the final product or service. After the party, team members generally delight the
opportunity to engage in post-project reviews and update organizational processes, since it
provides a means of highlighting individual accomplishments and through doing so gathering
recognition. It is also possible to use this generally affective behavior to cross pollinate other
project teams. As successful project teams are disbanded, the members carry with them their
positive experiences and knowledge to their new assignments, often stimulating teams that are
struggling with motivation or teamwork. In the absence of achieving the primary deliverables,
project closures are often intuitively considered a bad outcome whether the closure results from
impossible technical challenges, changes in the company’s financial condition or changes in the
competitive business environment. Such decisions can be demoralizing, especially if the project
is closed when the team is working effectively toward an agreed upon milestone. However,
“bad” can be a misnomer and in fact, definitive project termination combined with directed
closeout processes can have broad beneficial effects.

One of the most significant positive impacts of decisive project closure is the release of
personnel and funding for other projects. Individual projects are typically but a piece of an
organization’s portfolio; strategically analyzing the overall resource capacity, prioritizing
projects and closing some as needed to balance business needs can be critical to ensure must-win
projects have the necessary budget and staffing support continued progression. Failure to
proactively manage program breadth is financially inefficient and creates stress on personnel.
This can impact team performance, not only the ability to perform tasks but the team
environment as well.

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While project closure is not inherently negative, human nature often drives team members to
distance themselves from the work and herein lays the challenge for project managers engaging
in closeout processes. Stress reactions vary among individuals but can be manifested by less
participation and reduced willingness to work cooperatively. Communicating the reasons for
project termination will mitigate the prevalence of deleterious behavior. Gaining comfort with
the project closure process develops a resilient workforce where individuals are secure in the
knowledge that there is new life after a project ends. In addition, understanding the root cause of
closure can empower other project teams to better manage similar issues that might arise in the
future; as an example the reason for early-termination of these study projects can be mentioned.
Consequently many organizations will measure the time from project initiation to closure and
encourage teams to adopt fast failure strategies as a means of managing resource demand,
promoting technology development and ensuring portfolio balancing.

Demonstrating the value proposition for closure activities is paramount; in the absence of
communicating the benefits individuals are not motivated or may not be provided the time by
management to contribute to the process. Definition of the closeout deliverables will facilitate
team and stakeholder engagement by establishing a vision of end results. Foremost among these
is documentation. Final reports serve as a key reference on project status at closure and should
function as a roadmap for archived information such as technical documents, risk assessments,
decision logs and inventory disposition. Final reports are especially critical when the project may
be reactivated in the future. Often considerable time may have passed from closure to
reactivation and the staff that originally worked on the project are no longer available or capable
of serving as a source of institutional memory. In such circumstances, a comprehensive final
report is the best means to avoid repeating work or reinvesting budget to replace materials.

While writing final reports can be viewed as burdensome, it is possible to motivate contributors
by using the information gathered to promote organizational and individual growth. For example,
the technical sections of final reports can be used to author patent applications or publications in
trade journals. Patents can play an important role in protecting technology long enough for an
organization to complete product development or build value as a merger or acquisition target.
Similarly, publications can be a powerful motivator for team members to commit to a closeout
process since publication demonstrates individual expertise and in the unfortunate scenario

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where project closure is associated with corporate downsizing can aid individuals in obtaining
positions at new organizations.

While all experienced project managers know communication is a major focus of their role,
ensuring the organization gains from the experience of doing the work on a project, no matter
how it ends, is one of the key business values of project management professionals.
Inconsistently by preparing for closeout from inception, project managers contribute to
organizational success by building a flexible workforce capable of continuously improving
business processes to make effective, data-driven decisions.

2.1.2. Types of Project Closure

The two major closure types are Contractual and Administrative closures, where the former need
to precede and the later follow. Contractual closure involves testing outputs, accepting all works,
monitors to ensure all activities are completed, paying bills, and release of license, guarantee,
etc. Administrative closure involves commissioning of deliverables, approval of terminal report,
official transfer, release of remaining resources, acknowledgement, celebrate, etc. (Brady &
Jemmy, 2015). There are crucial activities during the project closure phase which should not be
overlooked.

Project Management Institute provides the contract & administrative closure procedures to be
performed as per closeout guide in order to close out an entire project or project phase. The
benefit of these procedures is that we can use them to help transition of the project to a business
and realize true project success. The difference between contractual closure and administrative
closure includes, that contract/procurement closure is done before the project can be closed
completely, and it may be done multiple times during the lifecycle of a project as many contracts
can exist within a project. Administrative Closure is only done once per phase, or for the entire
project and project closure cannot be complete without procurement closure. It is also used for
project acceptance.

The project closure includes the following steps:

i/ Develop closing procedure - to facilitate a closure easily
ii/ Complete Contract closures - may be done multiple of times for each contract. No
project can be closed before contracts being closed.

16
 iii/ Verify product scope requirements – essential step before the user signed-off. iv/
Gain formal acceptance from the key stakeholders – to ensure sustainable use v/
Submit the final performance reporting –to ensure the documentation vi/ Conduct
post-project or phase-end review – enhance lessons learning
vii/ Index & archive relevant documents in project MIS- for future & references
viii/ Document lessons learned - apply updates to firms’ assets ix/ Hand off
completed product - to the customer or stakeholder.

x/ Release resources back to Functional Managers - in case of matrix organization.

A project life cycle incorporates everything from planning to closing activities that complete the
work as projects are temporary, restricted by specific end dates for completion. The project
closure period also allows reviewing the successes and inadequacies for future reference. The
project closure phase is vital to ensure that the project has been completed, and the resources
may be re-assigned, or released when no more required for related project activities. The closure
phase also implies that no succeeding funds may be assigned to the project. A project closure
requires analysis which involves the project participants looking back over the project successes
and drawbacks. Conduct a group discussion or individual interviews of the people who involved
in project execution. In addition to finding out how the participants felt were barriers in the
process it uses the discussion to review a project outcome. Suggestions can be sought in
conducting future projects more successful based on the process and outcome of the closing
project.

The project closure phase consists of the processes that are performed to formally complete and
close all the assignments in a project which will usually include the approval and transfer of the
deliverables to the user or customer. It is important that all actions that are included in the
closing group are performed thoroughly, since only then will a project be considered as closed.
The essence of this group is that all the stakeholders agree that the project has met its intended
objectives, and additional charges will not be assigned to the project. Furthermore, the staff and
other resources can be assigned to other projects, or released. At the end of a project, staff
members with free time need to be reassigned to other projects or duties in the workplace. If
contract workers were used rather than full-time staff, the closing phase gives a chance to
determine if one able to offer the contributors a different contract position on another project.
Acceptance of deliverables is one of the most important actions that need to be performed during
17
the project closure phase. The customers review of deliverables according to the agreed
acceptance criteria, and formally accepted.
Before the project team is assigned to other projects, or relieved, it is important to formally
complete lessons learned from a project. In order that the lessons learned are properly
documented, a questionnaire may be circulated to the stakeholders for completion. Ideally, the
need is to obtain unbiased views, and include the critical success achieved during the project
execution, and the factors that contributed to the achievements. Likewise, the difficulties faced,
and the activities that could have avoided this situation need to be explained which will be an
important guide for succeeding projects. The knowledge used, acceptance criteria of the
deliverables, monitoring of the project, internal and external communications, involvement of
user, and the execution of the project schedule are other dimensions that may be incorporated in
lessons learned.
Project report completed at the project closure phase that is to be submitted to project sponsor
basically includes the project summary, starting from initiation to closure. This report includes
the critical points such as project purpose, objectives, plan, timetable, and a comparison of the
initial baseline schedule and the actual schedule with details regarding the changes incorporated,
processes tailored, financial aspects & their effects on the project. This post execution
examination is an assessment of the project's effectiveness, and its preparedness for future
projects.
The finalizing documentation in all projects include records of the process, including the initial
project requirements, documentation of the development phases, and the testing records should
be retained for future reference as needed. Creating a cover sheet for all of the documentation
that provides a brief overview and outline of the project and a list of participants need to be
performed. Chronologically well-organized documentation starting from initiation as the project
advanced to closure enables others to easily locate information in the future. These documents
are extremely useful with updating when planning and executing future projects, and act as a
useful template. Efforts undertaken during the project in preparing the project plans, and other
documents are beneficially utilized for future projects, and thus repetition is avoided.

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2.1.3. Benefits of Project Closure

According to Brockmeie (2017), an effective and standard project closure will help in
documenting the experience and lessons learned from the project executed and enable to release
remaining resources for other projects/uses, to clear outstanding issues, celebrate success, create
motivation, etc.

A project manager may decide to create a transition plan to help the customer successfully use
the project deliverables. Project transition plan is a sort of instruction manual on how the
customer should use the project deliverables once the project team has completed its work. A
transition plan can ensure that all responsibilities are considered and all deliverables—whether
complete or not—are given with appropriate documentation to the people who will use them. If
any activity remains incomplete when the deliverables are transitioned, they should be itemized,
and responsibility for each should be clearly identified. A punch-list of remaining items would
be determined, and the contractor would agree to complete them.

Applying lessons learned contains three process groups; analyze, store, and retrieve. An
organization identifies and document lessons, which is important to apply them to existing and
future projects. Applying lessons learned is necessary in establishing and sustaining a culture of
consistent project management improvement.

The team timely updates for their personnel records, honest recommendations, and help securing
their next assignments, and rapid notification of any issues. Helping efficient workers secure
follow-on work is one of the most important things a project manager must do near the end of a
project. Many of these workers will be eager to work again for that project manager and will tell
others of their good experience.

When people are reminded of their accomplishments, they realize they just met a large challenge
and are motivated to undertake new challenges. The team members are frequently energized to
finish the last few administrative tasks so they are done. The team members exert themselves to
finish the last few items. Celebration can persuade members to believe they can do just a bit
more than they might otherwise think is possible. Celebration is excellent time to recognize and
acknowledge both effort and results. Celebration marks transition points as people leave one

19
project and move on to another. Finally, celebration of success eases the stress of working hard
for a prolonged period of time trying to accomplish a project.

One of the most important measures of project success is how well the customers are able to use
the deliverables created by the project. When considering the full impact of the project results,
project managers are encouraged to consider use by direct customers and other stakeholders and
also how they contribute to the other parts of the triple bottom line—profit for the parent
company.

The post-implementation review is conducted by closely reviewing the project’s performance

against the original plans, and conformance against the project management processes defined
for the project. Its purpose is not only to assess the project’s level of success but also to identify
lessons learnt and make recommendations for future projects to enhance their likelihood of
success. A post-implementation review results are recorded in a document which is retained by
the business as the last record of the project. It includes: an assessment of how the project
performed against the objectives, scope, deliverables, schedule, expense and resource targets
identified during the project initiation and project planning phases; a rating of the level of
conformance against each of the project processes including time, cost, quality, change, risk,
issue, procurement, communications and acceptance management; a list of the project
achievements and failures; any lessons learnt and recommendations for future projects.

A post-implementation review is undertaken at the end of the project closure phase, after the
project closure report has been approved and all project closure activities completed. Some
companies wait a number of weeks before undertaking the post-implementation review, to
enable the benefits provided by the project to be fully realized by the business. A post-
implementation review is classically completed by an independent body who offers an unbiased
opinion of the project’s level of success. It is presented to the project sponsor/customer for
approval and is retained on file for future projects.

According to Prichard (1997), the use of a lessons learned repository will allow the teams to
access lessons for future use. However, in order to easily access these lessons, the information
has to be stored in a manner that is easily retrievable. Consistency of input information allows

20
for speedier identification of reoccurring issues and proactive resolutions. The lessons learned
input form is a key tool. This document allows for more consistent data collection as well as
providing a means for easier retrieval. The lessons learned template should include previously
agreed to fields such as: category, lesson learned, action taken, how to arrive at the action taken,
root cause and key words. Keywords are ultimately one of the determinants of success in
utilizing lessons learned, and are essential for easy retrieval. The data on the lessons learned
input form is transferred to the organization's lessons learned repository. The lessons learned
input form can also be shared with the project team during the lessons learned session. As a team
member identifies a lesson, that needs to be included in the repository, the necessary information
can be captured while the team member is available.

As per the findings of Makar (2013), project failures may have been marketed as successes, yet
the project goals were impacted by reduced scope, a strategic change in way resulting in a
cancelled release, or just a large cash investment that failed to provide any real business value.
When we are part of a failed project, it seems stressful and downright painful, but we have the
opportunity to learn a lot of lessons that will help lead us to project successes.

2.2. Empirical Review

An empirical review was based on observed and measured prior research findings and derives
knowledge from actual experience rather than from theory or belief. The aim is to explain about
the importance of complete project closure practices and reviewed. The empirical review
discussed the research findings based on publications on the area of the study and official reports
of government, project financing institution & project advising consultant reports.

The document review was to show whether the project closure report contains at least important
closure elements or not at closure phase. The review took about two weeks. The study
documents were obtained from various libraries such as AAU, MoWIE, MoFEC, National
Planning Commission, EU, Internet, etc.
According to Ferry & Kah (2013), who conducted research on the importance of closure,
provided a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the closure process for programs funded
under the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund in 2007-13, explaining
that program closure is often seen as a purely technical process. It involved shutting down the

21
operation of a program, finalizing the reporting and recording of results, and ensuring sound
financial management. This included the preparation of a series of documents for each
operational program that together forms the closure package- an application for payment of the
final balance, a final implementation report and a closure declaration. The research signified that
the quality of the closure process has been determined by the administrative capacity and
governance approaches of program authorities. Closure should be perceived as an integral part of
program implementation and this role is conditioned by financial absorption pressures, the type
of operations included in programs and administrative capacities. Financial absorption pressures
are prominent as closure approaches. As per this study, to communicate achievements it is
important to strengthen linkage of closure more carefully to the reporting of program
achievements and outputs.

The European Commission (EC)’s efforts to build capacity for closure found to be continue,
closure is regarded as an issue for the lifetime of a program, not just for the final years, it should
remain a priority for program authorities and project sponsors, and to ensure commitment from
all those involved in closure, administrative tasks associated with closure are substantial, and
program authorities must ensure that sufficient capacities are made available (training,
recruitment, outsourcing etc.).

The formal obligations associated with closure are important for the need to ensure that programs
are fully committed (i.e. all program funds are committed by the managing authority to projects,
defined in Funding Agreements) and spent (i.e. expenditure incurred by projects is fully paid),
while recognizing the tension between being able to spend for as long as possible and having
enough time to organize closure. Settling of the final balance, which cleared all preceding
expenditure to operations or the recovery of sums paid in excess by the EC, is the aspect of
closure emphasized in the Financial Regulation. The process of terminating a program consist
the submission of ‘closure package’ of documents.

Silverman (1976), explained that release cannot be simply done, it require careful operations of
how to keep project personnel from losing their spirit de-corps. As projects do not operate in the
same way as implementation at the end, it is complicated due to the fact that the manager is
losing the spirit de-corps, that kept all working atmosphere together. The project team starts to

22
think about the next project than the closing. But customers still highly concerned with the
project as requirement for logistics, field support, maintenance & spare parts last long with them
after the end of the project. A sudden disorderly end of project can cause trouble to manager as
no one give attention to any request as transferring to the other hotspots.

The manager may need to deal with other team than the one was working on the project which
requires properly documented myriad data left to newly assigned personnel. On the other hand if
experienced personnel retained, the hotspot will suffer in quality control. This challenged to
balance the needs. It is not like action of bankruptcy, but requires another switch in management
method, back to supportive style used during kickoff project.

Establishment of phase out plan which is like other project phase tasks to be performed & who
will do it must be outlined & planned. Phase-out plan pertain to project & customer infer
interface which need to be approved by organization’s management & customer respectively.
It needs to release first best personnel as they are most anxious to find other positions that are
least helpful for closeout. And also first release lease qualified as they do not have capacity for
thinned-out staff. Experienced personnel required to produce quality report. Unless properly
managed to close it, contract management can exist even after no further duties. Any future
questions that occur about a project can get answer from its documentation, it can serve as
training guide for other project managers, it occurs for a manager’s top achievement both
positive & negative or blame.
To allow the concentration of closure capacities, including experienced staff involved in closure
of past programming periods, EC needed dedicated closure unit. Closure matrix pools staff tasks
in different locations with time used usually 10% in the devoted closure unit. For internal
training courses of closure procedures manual has been prepared. The research indicates that
financial absorption pressures have an impact on the efficiency of the closure process. The study
identified administrative capacity & governance approach of program authority that determine
the quality of the closure process. Efficient program closure has depended on the coordinated
input of actors and structures. Bureaucratically difficult to implement and this can have an
impact on efficient program closure. Phasing in Romania, involved several complex internal
procedures, reviews of projects and submission for approval to the EC. A pending Major Projects

23
(MP) decision complicated the closure of an Operational Program (OP), as it was not known how
to deal with expenses by the Managing Authority (MA) and Audit Authority (AA) when
preparing the closure documents.
The auditing of Financial Engineering Instrument (FEI) has proven to be complex, requiring
specific competences, particularly in the final phase of programs where assessments of the
performance of the instruments is carried out. For most program authorities covered in the
research, dealing with non-functioning projects was not seen as an important issue for the closure
process. In most cases, non-functioning projects would have been closed down during the
programming period.
Closure, particularly where the quality of governance is low can bring capacity challenges for
MSs. Variation in the quality of governance can express itself as the creation of suitable closure-
related structures; the ability to provide adequate human resources; and the use of systems and
tools assisting with the closure process.
In Wales, a project closure group involves key stakeholders to strengthen ownership and track
the way risks are being managed. In England, a Closure Technical Working Group operates at
working level while a Closure Operational Policy Assurance Group takes strategic decisions on
closure at the senior level. Effective program closure depends on the timely input of EU, national
and program levels.
The research indicated challenges of managing the program closure process include the
development of timetables and coordination arrangements across different levels and approaches
vary, depending on existing administrative arrangements, the size and scope of programs etc. In
Finnish, closure timetable was communicated to all involved bodies in a series of closure letters.
In most cases, national government bodies responsible for coordinating Cohesion policy (CP)
management and implementation were involved, feeding into the development of EC closure
guidance, developing domestic guidance and coordinating the closure process across OPs.
A fundamental area of concern for closure related to capacity issues, covering both who is there
to carry out the tasks, and how much accurate information there is to make sure the tasks are
completed properly. The limited capacity causes delays in closure, which impact on launch of the
next OP, which again creates delayed closure etc.as a vicious circle. For instance the six months
delay in settlement of balance & closure of an awareness creation broadcasting on consumer
protection in Ethiopia in 2017 of the Transformation Triggering Facility project, not only

24
complicated the final 60% payment, but also resulted in 100% cancellation of the second round
intervention project planning. It is inevitable that the attention of program authorities,
beneficiaries and other stakeholders turns to the opportunities and demands coming from the new
period, leaving little capacity to execute closure processes correctly and efficiently. In other
contexts, particularly where closure is difficult or delayed, focus on closure impedes the launch
of new OPs. Closure of projects at risk of non-completion in Wales involved identifying a set of
projects which were on the verge of closing, with all involved staff working in a dedicated way
only on closure of those projects for that week.
This concentrated approach was found to be helpful. To avoid an excessive closure task at the
end of the period, program authorities in Western Finland and Belgium have taken a proactive
approach to closure and tried to close projects throughout the programming period stagger the
closure. The EC has stated that most AAs have the capacity to provide reliable audit results for
effective closure. However, it also emphasizes the need to ensure sufficient capacity, particularly
during closure. For instance, Bavaria has produced a ‘closure brochure’ on the achievements of
program. In Wales, a Welsh Government minister announced for the first time that 100% of the
money earmarked in the program drawn down. This opportunity for positive communication is
attributed to aspects of the closure provisions, notably the 10% flexibility mechanism. The
research argues that beyond country specific formal process, closure should be perceived as an
integral part of program implementation: influencing the allocation of remaining resources; in
securing and raising awareness of program achievements and legacies; and, in supporting an
efficient transition to the next programming period. The aim to absorb the maximum available
funding before the spending deadline put pressure on the closure process. The use of annual
closure reports were generally viewed as positive in simplifying the closure process, providing
assurance to the EC and easing the burden on MAs and AAs at the end of programming periods.
Beyond financial performance, closure processes should be more closely tied to the actual
achievements of programs. For the MA, it is recommended that closure is seen as an issue for the
lifetime of a program, not just for the final years; where as in Ethiopia, except a few huge
investment projects involving foreign financers, it is rare to see it even at the end of
implementation. There is a need to ensure that closure remains a priority for program authorities
and project sponsors so that sufficient time is committed to the process. Closure must be seen as
part of ongoing project management in the MA. Close coordination between program authorities

25
involved in closure is recommended. MSs and program authorities must ensure that sufficient
capacities are available for closure. Given that administrative tasks associated with closure are
substantial, and the fact that much of the work is concentrated in the key period of transition
between programming periods when organizational flux and staff turnover often occurs, it is
important that program authorities allocate sufficient resources to effective closure. The typical
challenge encountered in Ethiopia was the Livestock Value Chain/Public Private Dialogue
project (2011 – 2015) which released project team after completion, but before closure practice
resulted in difficulty to settle outstanding financial issues over two years and liable to additional
costs. The loss of skilled staff in key areas led to inability to deliver quality products and services.

There is considerable variation in the timetables set for closure, among EC Member States
operational program and between program authorities. Given this, EC guidance should lay out
closure steps with more clarity. This should incorporate differentiated timetables for different
program authorities, recognizing the fact that the intensity of the closure work for MA and AA
varies at different stages of the closure process. The EC’s efforts to build capacity for closure
should continue, especially for AAs. For instance, pressures on the capacity of AAs at closure
should be eased by the requirement for programs in 2014-20 to close the accounts and submit the
assurance package by a set annual deadline. This provides an incentive for MSs to address issues
immediately in order to be able to include related expenditure in the accounts. This should
facilitate closure in 2014-20. Nevertheless, the role of AAs in OP implementation, including
closure increased significantly in 2007-13 and is likely to do so again in 2014-20 and this
warrants dedicated capacity-building initiatives from the EU level.

Although program authorities were clear on lessons learnt from the Closure of the 2007-2013
Programing Period the potential financial consequences of errors or irregularities in closure
documentation, the relationship between the reporting of achievements and the EC’s approval of
closure submissions was less clear.

MS guidance, support and structures should be established, building on or working alongside

EU-level support for closure. The establishment of working groups (e.g. the Closure Group in
Wales) helps to keep closure on the program management agenda. MS input is important in
providing tailored support for closure in specific national and program contexts. This can involve

26
setting internal closure deadlines that take into account specific program architectures or the
distribution of administrative responsibilities and capacities. It can also relate to the
establishment of closure-related groups and/or the production of a closure ‘pack’ for OPs that
coordinate program authorities and facilitate the dissemination of guidance and knowledge
exchange. For the MA, it is recommended that closure is seen as an issue for the lifetime of a
program, not just for the final years. Work to facilitate closure should begin at the start of the
programming period, for instance by obtaining copies of project sponsor’s document retention
policy and ensuring that EU rules on document retention are understood and being implemented
properly by project sponsors. There is a need to ensure that closure remains a priority for
program authorities and project sponsors so that sufficient time is committed to the process.
Closure must be seen as part of ongoing project management in the MA. For instance through:
the early establishment of a program closure Group and/or ‘champion’ to keep closure on the
program management agenda; developing a project plan to establish targets for numbers of
projects the MA aims to close per month and for identifying ‘problem’ projects at an early stage.
The issues can be discussed at regular project management meetings. It is useful to keep closure
as a ‘stand-alone’ agenda item at meetings (for example, closure can be an agenda item for the
MA’s risk management group, with its own risk register in relation to closure). Close
coordination between program authorities involved in closure is recommended. The availability
of sufficient capacities for closure is required to be ensured by MS & MA. Given that
administrative tasks associated with closure are substantial, and the fact that much of the work is
concentrated in the key period of transition between programming periods when organizational
flux and staff turnover often occurs, it is important that program authorities allocate sufficient
resources to effective closure. This requires careful management of human resources in MAs and
AAs: training of staff and the development of relevant systems and tools to facilitate closure
(databases to track the progress of projects, guidelines, manuals, systems, procedures, forms
etc.); or the engagement of external staff (e.g. experienced consultants) for fixed terms to
facilitate closure.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MoFEC) and the Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change in collaboration with development partners have been supporting to
operationalize the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy through the
implementation of the Fast Track Investment Projects for the period July 2014 – February 2017.

27
The report mainly provides summary of key performance and achievements of the FTIs
implementation. The ad-hoc Quality Assurance Missions validating Monitoring & Evaluation
information conducted reflection meetings at regional and woreda levels, observations, decisions
and action points arising from the mission, for learning timely corrective actions. The missions
contributed to improved implementation and reporting of the Fast Track Investment at all levels,
smooth communications between the federal and regional bodies, skills transfer as well as
identifying key lessons from the successes and challenges for the upcoming projects/program
phases.

According to the official correspondence letters from the Contracting Authority (National
Authorizing Office) to the supplier AGMIN ITALY SRL the Agricultural Marketing project was
implemented by the Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise from 2012 – 2015. The project
purchases of laboratory equipment through international bid and purchase from AGMIN supplier
carried out for 496,529.66 euros contract. The company was able to deliver only equipment with
value of 98,068 euros. The supplier defaulted to complete its contractual obligations. The early-
termination closure and the required recovery of pre-financing amount of 385,201.16 could not
be timely performed due to delayed proper closure of the project. The issue may lead to litigation
and additional costs due to negligence of timely closure.

2.3. Conceptual Framework

For a project to be successful a project team needs to give emphasis to all project phases in
managing it. Specifically the most neglected closure phase requires attention as equal as other
phases (Westland 2006). At project closure phase, both contractual and administrative closures
need to be performed sequentially starting from contracts. Contractors hired to work on the
project at completion of their obligation, contracts should be terminated. Important team
members are renowned. Some project managers even establish minor work events for people
who involved in the project to acknowledge them for their energies. When a project is complete,
a project manager usually holds a meeting & evaluates what went right in a project and detect
project failures. It is particularly useful to comprehend lessons gained so that improvements can
be made for future projects. Once the project is complete, project managers still have a few tasks
to complete. They need to create a project punch-list of things that didn’t get accomplished

28
during the project and work with team members to complete them. Perform a final project
payment and prepare a final project report. At the end collect all project documents and
deliverables and store them in a separate place.

The conceptual framework is constructed using the framework of project closure principles and
customer satisfaction relationship as shown in Fig. 2.3. It is adopted from theoretical concepts
showing the relationship between key project closure practices. As it has been indicated in fig.
2.3, closure planning is a road-map for proper and timely closure, testing & acceptance including
official hand over and celebration of success enable to use the fruits of the project output timely
which lead to customer satisfaction. Feedback and approval of prepared closure reports create
ground to sustain project benefits & capture lessons for subsequent projects, which can satisfy
project clients and financers. The feedback has an impact on further improvement & actions
creating understanding through this communication.

The Water Supply & Sanitation projects execution commenced in 2014 and completed in May
2017, after delay of more than two years from its original contract which terminated due to poor
performance (MoWIE 2007). In May 2017, most of the civil and electro-mechanical works have
been completed. Due to less emphasis given to the closure phase, beneficiaries could not able to
timely use safe water as transfers were delayed. This study focused to analyze the level of
emphasis given to closure practices of the project. The study has also been motivated by the
problems encountered due to overlooking the project closure practice, lessons that could be
gained, timeliness of use output/water, & resource release which considerably can impair
beneficiaries satisfaction (Pradip 2018).

The specific objectives of the study as indicted in section 1.4.2. above included exploring the
project closure tradition and practice, assessing the facilities and knowledge of project
team/client for conducting proper project closure, evaluating the awareness of the benefits of
proper project closure. It is analyzing the benefits of properly closing projects for better result,
examining project closure practices in use with acceptable closure standard & investigating the
effect of neglecting proper project closure. An example of the conceptual framework adopted
from theoretical concepts showing the relationship process between key project closure
principles and customer satisfaction is indicated in Fig. 2.3.

29
Project closure plan

Early termination

Testing & acceptance

Obtain feedback Sustain benefits,Capture&share lesson Customer Satisfaction

Official handover

Approve closure report Feedback

Celebrate success

Fig. 2.3. Key project closeout principles and customer satisfaction relation

• Independent variable: elements of project closure principles listed in fig 2.3 (both contractual
and administrative) can influence project deliverables.

Dependent variable: benefits/consequences of project closure depend on the level of applications

and practices of standard project closure principles mentioned in fig 2.3.

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 III. CAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. Introduction

In this study the Descriptive Research design is used. According to Fox & Bayat (2007),
descriptive research can be explained as a statement of affairs as they are at present with the
researcher having no control over variable. The study problems analyzed and described through
collection of both primary and secondary data that enabled to explain the situation more
comprehensively than was possible without employing this method. Descriptive studies are used
to describe various aspects of the phenomena. In its popular format, descriptive research is used
to describe characteristics and/or behavior of sample population of the Water Supply &
Sanitation project. The study was conducted using document reviews, mail questionnaire and
interviews as popular data collection methods used in descriptive studies (Ethridge, 2004).

3.2. Description of the Project

The study project is the Water Supply and Sanitation Projects in some selected towns to reduce
the shortage of potable water supply owned by Water Supply & Sanitation Offices. It was
implemented from 2014 to 2017 and coordinated by the Ministry of Water, Irrigation &
Electricity. The ministry is mandated to develop and manage the water resources of the country
mainly in terms of potable water development, irrigation schemes and hydroelectric power
generations.

3.3. Research Approach and Design

The approach adopted by qualitative researchers tends to be inductive which means develop a
theory or look for a pattern of meaning on the basis of the data collected. This involves a move
from the specific to the general. However, most research projects also involve a certain degree of
deductive reasoning. Qualitative researchers do not base their research on pre-determined
hypotheses. Nevertheless, they clearly identify a problem or topic that they want to explore and
may be guided by a theoretical lesson - a kind of main theory which provides a framework for
their investigation (Fox and Bayat, 2007).

31
The approach to data collection and analysis is methodical but allows for greater flexibility than
in quantitative research. Data is collected in textual form interaction with the participants’
interviews and e-mail. Qualitative research often involves a smaller number of participants. This
may be because the methods used such as in-depth interviews are time and labor intensive but
also because a large number of people are not needed for the purposes of statistical analysis or to
make generalizations from the results. The smaller number of people typically involved in the
qualitative research studies and the greater degree of flexibility did not make the study in any
way “less scientific” than a typical quantitative study involving more subjects and carried out in
a much more rigid manner (Ethridge, 2004).

Descriptive research designs help to provide answers to the questions of who, what, when,
where, and how associated with a particular research problem; a descriptive study cannot
conclusively ascertain answers to why. It is used to obtain information concerning the current
status of the phenomena and to describe what existed with respect to variables or conditions in a
situation (Fox & Bayat, 2007). Hence, it is Cross-sectional research design specifically a reliance
on existing differences selection. The cross-sectional design can only measure differences
between or from among a variety of people, subjects, or phenomena rather than a process of
change. As such, researchers using this design can only employ a relatively passive approach to
making causal inferences based on findings.

3.4. Data Type and Source

3.4.1. Data Type

The type of data used included both primary and secondary data which also served as a
triangulation for the same topic. This is a way of assuring the validity of research through the use
of a variety of data collection methods. However, the purpose of triangulation is not necessarily
to cross-validate data but rather to capture different dimensions of the same phenomenon. The
primary data have been collected through interview of face-to-face and phone calls and e-mail
questionnaire.

The primary data is raw data which have been collected from the source; in this case it was
planned and conducted an interview and questionnaire completed.

32
The secondary data were collected from the review of projects progress and/or closure reports
produced by the projects consulting firm.

3.4.2. Data Source

The sources of the primary data were from projects coordination ministry, financer, Water
Supply & Sanitation Offices of the sample projects towns, beneficiaries and National
Authorizing Office/MoFEC.

The secondary data have been gathered from review of the Water Supply & Sanitation projects
implementation progress reports; as the focus is mainly to explore how the project closure report
was organized in managing proper closure.

3.5. Target Population and Sample

3.5.1. Target Population

The target population is the entire population (the Water Supply and Sanitation projects), that a
research has been interested in investigating and analyzing. In this case it is the Water Supply
and Sanitation Offices towns which owned the projects deliverables. A sampling frame has been
drawn from the target population.

3.5.2. Sample Size Determination

The sample size was determined using both Purposive (non-probability) and Systematic
(probability) sampling methods. A homogeneous purposive sampling was used in determining
interviewees in the five systematically selected project towns’ beneficiaries as the sample
selected have a shared characteristic or set of characteristics on the interest of the project closure
practice (Crossman, 2018). Systematic sampling method was used to select the five towns’
sample projects. The method is one of the probability/random sampling technique frequently
chosen by researchers for its simplicity and its periodic quality/ assurance that the population
was evenly sampled.

In using the systematic sampling/quazi-random number method, I have followed the next steps:

• Determine the sampling interval K

33
 • One unit between the first and Kth in the population list is randomly chosen
• Add Kth unit to the randomly chosen number.

Hence, K=N/n, where K is sampling interval, N is population and ‘n’ is sampling unit

First unit is randomly picked, and then the next units will be calculated as: first unit+K.

3.5.3. Sampling Selection Procedure

Using the above formula: population size (projects list arranged in alphabetical order by
name) from which I have chosen 5 units (projects), then,

Calculated K = 15/5 = 3 then

st
To select the first unit, I randomly picked one number between the 1 and K, i.e. 2.

So the sample started with number 2, then the next sampling units continue by adding three
(2+3=5), 8, 11, 14 in the list and interviewee persons from the five towns projects beneficiaries.

3.6. Data Collection Methods and Tools

3.6.1. Method

Cross-sectional surveys were conducted using document review from secondary data and
interview data collection; through telephone interviews. A cross-sectional survey collects data to
make inferences about a population of interest (universe) at one point in time. Cross-sectional
surveys have been described as snapshots of the populations about which data gathered.

3.6.2. Data Collection Tools:

Using interviews for primary data: it has been conducted through an interview of telephone
calls to the respondents. It was expensive than questionnaires, but they were better for quick
data collection, some complex questions, low literate beneficiary community members of
those rural towns. Reviewing secondary data: the main alternative to making an interview is
to review reports of the project.

34
3.7. Data Analysis and Presentation

3.7.1. Data Analysis

In the analysis of qualitative data, there was systematic and rigorous ways in analyzing records
from interviews, e-mail and review of reports. Qualitative analyses of the content of these
records are used to identify results and variations across respondents and secondary data sources.

Descriptive statistics, in short, help describe and understand the features of a specific data set, by
giving short summaries about the sample and measures of the data. From the most recognized
types of descriptive statistics mean and sample standard deviation (s) were used during the
analysis.

In many cases, it is not possible to sample every member within a population, requiring that the
equation below is the modified one; so that the standard deviation was measured through a
random sample of the population being studied. A common estimator for population standard
deviation (σ) is the sample standard deviation, typically denoted by s. The important change is
"N-1" instead of "N"

Where
xi is one sample value
x̄ is the sample mean
N is the sample size
Generally, calculating standard deviation is valuable any time it is desired to know how far from
the mean a typical value from a distribution can be.

x = individual scores
M = mean
n = number of scores in group

Steps

2
Create two columns: x & (x- x̄ )

35
 1. Put the raw data in the x column
2. Calculate the mean
3. Calculate deviation scores by subtracting each score from the mean and squaring it
and put these in the second column
4. Sum the squared deviation scores
5. Set up the formula
6. Calculate ‘s’

General discussions, charts and tables were employed to help readers understand the meaning of
the data being analyzed.

The Coefficient of Variance is used to measure the relative dispersion between Early-
Termination & Administrative Closure and Contract Closure & Administrative Closure. The
analysis used Coefficient of Variance formula (CV) = S/ x̄ (100)%. Where, S is sampling
standard deviation and weighted x̄ is the sample mean.

3.7.2. Data Presentation

The data has been collected, analyzed, interpreted and then presented in a narrative, charts and
tables form. The report included discussion/result, conclusion and recommendations. Finally
references and appendixes for various items are also incorporated.

36
 IV. CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1. Results and Discussions

Ethiopia is endowed with both surface and ground water which can serve the needs of the
population if adequately developed. However, the provision of clean/potable water and sanitation
which is basic need of human beings is least in the world and even in the Sub-Saharan countries.
The country’s water and sanitation coverage were 42% & 28% respectively in 2006 (MoWE
2008). Due to this many people suffers from shortage of drinkable water and water borne
diseases. To improve the situation, there have been many long & short-term efforts made & still
underway through various ways, of which the MDG/SDG, PASDEP and GTP strategies and
program/projects including the current Water Supply & Sanitation projects are to be mentioned.

The Water Supply & Sanitation projects were initiated in 2007, designed and executed from
2013 to 2017 with an estimated cost of 38 million euros of which about 50% was loan from
European Investment Bank and the balance was granted by the European Union (MoWIE, 2007).
The projects were planned to provide potable water for about one million people living in these
fifteen towns. The execution, involved feasibility studies & supervision through service
contracts, supplies & construction contracts managements. To meet the objective of these
projects within intended quality, cost & timeframe it required to complete the standard cycle.
The process would have followed the four project management standard phases namely
initiation, planning, implementation and closure.

However, like many other projects, where projects closing are one of the most overlooked
processes in the discipline of project management and these projects also encountered same
(Brockmeier 2017). This study focused on the process of the closure phase by taking sample size
of about 30% from the fifteen geographically disbursed projects throughout the country. The
sample of five projects was systematically selected from the target population. The study used
descriptive type of research analysis. Secondary data were collected from the projects’
implementation reports. For primary data both closed and open-ended interview guide
questionnaire was developed and telephone interviews were conducted with mainly primary

37
stakeholders which included the MoWIE, EU Delegation, MoFEC, the five towns WSSO
managers and five beneficiaries in each project town.

The analysis included computing the Sample Mean (x̄ ), Sample Standard Deviation (s) and
Coefficient of Variance (CV) in percent for relative measure of dispersion. The result of the
analysis was based on the review of secondary data from the projects’ reports and the primary
data collected through e-mail questionnaire & telephone interviews on the practices of early-
closure, contract closure and the administrative closure.

Mean (x̄ ): ∑x/n , calculated for each inquiry; where x = individual scores, N is the sample size

x̄ is mean and n = number of scores in a group

Mean (x̄ ) = (1+7+11+5+1)/5

=5

2 2 2 2 2
S= √1/25-1∑(1-5) +(7-5) +(11-5) +(5-5) +(1-5)

S= √1/24∑(16+4+36+0+16)

S= √1/24(72)

S= √3

S= 1.73

C.V. = S/ x̄ (100). Where, S is sampling standard deviation and x̄ is the sample weighted mean.

a/The average C.V for Early-Termination = 1.63/5.2 x 100 = 31.34%

b/ The average C.V for Contractual Closure = 1.82/5.2 x 100 = 35%

c/ The average C.V for Administrative Closure = 1.7/5.2 x 100 = 32.69%

The relative measure of dispersion of the three groups has been measured using the Coefficient
of Variance. The C.V. of the Administrative Closure (32.69%) and the C.V. of Early-

38
Termination (31.34%) are less than the C.V. of Contractual Closure (35%) or the CV of the later
is higher than both of the Early-Termination & the Administrative Closure. These indicate that
the stakeholders are less variable/more consistent for Early-Termination and Administrative
Closure than Contractual Closure. This is due to better concern for Early-Termination and
Administrative Closure than Contractual Closure; focus is on an output than complete process &
steps. From this it possible to conclude that, attention should be given to applying standard steps.
The project team needs to focus on adequately communicating on the importance & careful
management of specifically contractual closure.

Here, contractual closure probably becomes the concern of only the contractors to get all bills
paid and/or released retention guarantees, release of license.

Administrative closure on the other hand, is the concern of relatively many stakeholders mainly
the direct beneficiaries of water supply, project team that need to be freed & reassigned, client
interested to move to the next projects. Project team does not want to hear/read lessons learned
which indicate deliverables went wrong (Brockmeier, 2017).

4.1.1. Early-Termination

Originally the construction contract for the 15 projects in the geographically distantly located in
fifteen towns was signed with a single foreign company in October 2014. Due to poor
performance of the contractor the contract terminated early before the work completed. After
early-termination the works of the 15 projects were redesigned and retendered by clustering the
work in to six lots and awarded to six local contractors nearby their geographical locations
(Appendix IV). This expedited resource mobilization and increased efficiency in execution.
From this contract arrangement lessons can be drawn, where it was difficult to manage projects
located in far distant areas (Adigrat project 898 km from Addis north of the country to
Dembidolo 652 km from Addis in the West) by the single contractor at a time. These projects
were expected to be completed and supply drinkable water to the community in one year of their
commencement. The likert-scale data analysis realized that the early-terminated original contract
didn’t properly closed, which lacked closure report and documentation that would have enabled
to draw lessons (Fig 4.1.1). Except terminating the contract almost nothing was done on the
closure practice at this level. About 38% of the respondents supported the early-termination after
the failure of the contract to perform. The 19% of the respondents were found to be neutral about

39
early-termination and the interview results on likert-scale also justified the inadequacy of early-
termination/closure practice of contracts (Fig. 4.1.1).

45
40
35
30
25 disagree
20 neutral
15 agree
10
5
0
Used template Overlook Early mutual
closure termination agreement
report

Fig. 4.1.1 Early-Termination of contract (in %)

4.1.2. Contractual Closure

After signing the second round six contracts in 2015, able to provide water in 2017 which was
completed with an extension of an average of 4.5 moths. The data obtained from the five sample
projects reports produced by the supervising company realized that Provisional Acceptance were
made in August 2017, where pinch-list of refining and corrective activities were yet to be
completed. The sample study showed that there was delay of about two years, the projects able to
provide drinking water, except where weak power supply hindered to adequately pump water to
few hillside sites of some towns. The electric power supply is not only weak but also delayed the
testing the system & supply of water in some towns (table 4.1.3). This was due to lack of
detailed closure planning, including adequate power supply. In principle it is advisable to close
contracts in step wise through the projects execution at every contract completion of projects and
document reports. The study also revealed that 44% of respondents were neutral about
contractual closure; that means considerable amount of the study population has no information
about contractual closure (Fig. 4.1.2).

40
 70
60
50
40
30
20 17 20 20
20 15
12 disagree
10 4 3
neutral
0
agree

Fig. 4.1.2. Contractual Closure Practices (in %)

The financial performance of the projects indicated that, some projects suffered cost overruns for
instance the contractual prices of Ataye & Mersa have been increased by 5.6% of their original
budget (table 4.1.1). After eight months of the projects provisional handover, no closure report
was produced & approved (table 4.1.1).
Table 4.1.1 Works Contract Data Summary for Sample Units
Project Location Ataye – town Fiche- town Injibara –town Mersa –town Sodo –town
Contract October 6th 2014 1 October 08 October October 6th 2014 10th October
Signature date 2014 2014 2014
Contract 4,188,554.95 less 3,627,807.59 3,607,795.16 4,188,554.95 less 50,005,174.93
Amount contingency euro for lot D euro contingency birr
Amended 4,422,132.51euro 3,154,615.3 2,408,060.90 4,422,132.51euro 33,355,819.45
Contract value for lot C euro for lot D euro for lot C birr
Performance 12 months 12 months 17 months 12 months 6 months
Period
Start Date 20th November 20 Nov. 2014 20 Nov. 2014 20 Nov. 2014 26 Nov. 2014
2014
Completion 20 Nov. 2015 20 Nov. 2015 20 Nov. 2015 20th Nov. 2015 26 May 2015
Date
Contract Time 2 months 3month &10 7 months 2 months 8.5 months
Extended days
Revised 5th February 2016 March 12,2016 April 2016 5th February 2016 February 9th
Completion 2016
Date
Total Payment 4,241,716.94 euro 3,188,685.7 3,638,591.26 4,241,716.94 euro 35,339,061.4 bir
for lot C euro for lot D euro for lot C
Works & all all all all all
accepted

41
4.1.3. Administrative Closure

The study analysis showed that projects deliverables were completed 100% after four months
behind the schedule. Such condition of the projects created 14% dissatisfaction to beneficiary
communities. Some WSSO managers were not also ready both mentally & materially to fully
take responsibility of the projects deliverables or operations for sustainable use. This was
witnessed at some projects absence of electric power readiness both for testing the functionality
of the system & weak water pumping (Injibara & Mersa). Among the project stakeholders, 37%
were neutral about lessons to be drawn, which indicate that projects stakeholders may not able to
learn from the projects’ success or failures. About 37% of the respondents were not aware
whether the remaining resources were released or not (fig 4.1.3). This implies that the bulk of the
stakeholders were not worried about releasing & enabling the remaining resources use and
ignorance of consequences of possible interest burden.

In the context of these study projects, the management life cycle was found to be incomplete.
The project closure tradition and practice at the end of project execution is limited to signing
Provisional Acceptance Certificate and transfer of ownership. In addition to the construction
component of the projects withhold 5% of the contract value for one year after provisional
acceptance for possible defects and cracks maintenance, which followed by signing final
acceptance certificate.

From this study it is possible to conclude that, the only facility available for project closure is the
templates for issuing the Provisional and Final Acceptance Certificate (Appendix VIII) which is
designed by the financing institutions (the European Commission and the European Investment
Bank). The project team and client knowledge is limited to signing the acceptance certificates,
handing over of deliverables and release final/retention guarantee payment. Closure practice for
the contractors is a question of securing remaining or retention payments; whereas 60% of the
respondents were not aware of it. No data have been gathered and recorded using formats for
learning in formal meetings (appendix IX).

42
 70

60

50

40

30
disagree
20
neutral
10
agree
0

Fig 4.1.3 Administrative Closure (in%)

Even though, proper project closure has multi-folds benefits, such as lessons learning, timely
release of remain fund, freeing workers, sustaining project benefits etc., based on the findings of
this case study and practices assessed, it is difficult to say that there is awareness about those
benefits. About 36% of the respondents witnessed that no closure report was approved (table
4.1.2). Learning lessons from the projects can serve to apply them for future projects throughout
a business. Project closure confirms that the work is done to satisfy a set of agreed requirements,
enables to complete the procurement & financial closure, to gain financial acceptance, to transfer
final deliverables to users, solicit feedback from the customer, also to index and archive records,
etc.

The current closure project practice examined in this study, which is limited to signing
acceptance certificate, transfer of project deliverables to final beneficiaries and performing
settlement of last payments, is far behind acceptable closure standard & principles detailed
above. The existing practices are unable to realize the multi-fold benefits mainly due to lack of
awareness & knowledge. The projects were unable to use standard project closure templates
which would have facilitated documentation of lessons learning information (appendix XII).

43
The repercussions of neglecting proper project closure includes, reduced efficiencies of
subsequent/future projects by repeating similar errors, absence of project management
improvements, resulting business incompetency, demotivate experienced workers due to miss-
management in timely freeing or retaining, limiting sustainable use of project deliverables due to
inadequate/absence of data gathering meetings for proper documentations, additional costs of
interest due to delayed repayment of remaining fund, loss of opportunity cost of tied finance,
chance of missing feedback, etc.

Table 4.1.2. Analysis of Administrative Closure

Likert Scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, Descriptive

strongly agree 1 – 5 respectively)

Item 1 2 3 4 5 Total Mean SD

Administrat Cou % Cou % Cou % Co % Co % Co %

ive closure nt nt nt unt unt unt

official 1 4 3 12 3 12 12 46 7 27 26 87 5.2 1.75

handover
conducted

Lessons 4 15 9 33 11 37 3 10 0 0 27 90 5.4 1.76

learned
reviewed

Closure 6 20 10 33 9 30 4 13 1 3 30 100 6 1.36

report
prepared

report 6 21 10 36 7 25 5 18 0 0 28 93 5.6 1.4

approved

remaining 8 27 10 33 11 37 1 3 0 0 30 100 6 1.9

resource
released

Objective met 2 7 3 11 4 14 17 61 2 7 28 93 5.6 2.47

Satisfied 1 3 4 14 4 14 15 52 5 17 29 97 5.8 2

success 3 11 5 19 4 15 8 30 6 23 26 87 5.2 0.77

celebrated

Average for 31 13.5 54 24 53 23 65 29 21 10 224 93 5.6 1.7

Admn.
Closure

44
Responses to Questionnaires through E-mail

For the question about preparing detailed plan, no detailed closure plan was indicated from the
mail response and 40% respondents were not aware of closure plan (table 4.1.3). Concerning
awareness on project closure activities, it was understood that the respondents knew only about
the need for preparation of financial report, provisional acceptance/handover and retention fee
for defect liabilities. About 60% of respondents gave emphasis to closure not because of project
management principles, but to be able to transfer water supply facilities (table 4.1.3). It was
realized that more than 80% of the respondents did not have knowledge about each benefit (table
4.1.3). Very few of them said handing over enabled them using the project deliverables and upon
approval of acceptance certificate remaining bills can be settled. Therefore, benefits of proper
project closure include identifying reason for early-termination of unsuccessful projects, where
the case study projects revealed no record on the early-termination.

Table 4.1.3 Responses to Questionnaires through E-mail

No Questions No. of Respo Responses
people ndents
commu (in %)
nicated
1 Tell me about 5 100 To phase out the projects, the final report needs to be
project closure prepared. These reports are expected to indicate
practice both whether the initial objectives are met and there are no
technically & remaining activities to be done by the contractors. To
financially handed over to the beneficiaries.
2 How you detail 5 60 The representative of the consulting firm said that there
was detailed plan; but didn’t indicate the steps.
your project
closure plan and The rest (40%) of respondents do not know detailed
plan.
steps followed?
3 Can you explain to 5 40 40% of the respondents were aware of some of the
closure activities such as final reports to be prepared,
me the main
5% retention to be retained for correcting possible
project closure defects and provisional & final acceptance certificate
activities? signed.
4 Why do you 5 100 An expert replied “to ensure whether the project has
practice project achieved its intended objectives. For a payment

45
 closure? If not approval, closure emanates from loan & grants
why? agreement & also prepare checklist, based on
specification, drawing, bill of quantities. For release of
retention”. 80% respondent managers do not have
knowledge about.
5 Do you think your 5 100 60% of the respondent said “yes, Since it involves both
organization give external and domestic resources (MoWIE, MoFEC, and
due emphasis in Consultant)”.
project closure
practices?
6 What are the 5 80 40% of the respondents said “support to the ongoing
greatest effort of the government provide access to potable
accomplishments water and hence improve the health status of the
of the project? beneficiary in the 15 Towns Water supply and
Sanitation Projects”.
7 How was the 5 80 Two respondents guessed that the beneficiaries of each
satisfactions/dissati town are very much satisfied since they have been
sfactions condition waiting for long to have potable water (MoFEC,
of all stakeholders? MoWIE).
8 Please explain the 5 100 Projects deliverables delayed for reasons a) poor design
lessons drawn from of the project, b) Weak organization of contractors –
this project understaffing, lack of equipment/ machinery c) lack of
execution? foreign currency for timely importing materials and
electromechanical equipment. d) Weak synchronization
of activities e) delayed handover of sites & f) in
adequate electric supply, etc.
Original terminated contract would have not been
signed with only one contract as projects locations are
geographically widespread which delayed project
implementations by one year.
9 Were all expenses 5 100 The respondents who said yes as financers, all
recorded in an expenses are included in every progress report.
expense register? No records were found at TWSS Offices. As a result
they could not understand how their loan debt become
to be 52 million (Ataye) and 105 million (Fiche).
10 Did regular quality 5 100 As per the respondents of 60% interviewees, quality
control take place? control is conducted by the resident engineers on a
daily basis during the execution of the project.

46
 At Fiche project conducted by committee
11 Were all 5 80 80% of the respondents said that all measured works
deliverables are recoded and payments are made accordingly.
recorded in a
quality register?
12 Were clear 5 100 Only one respondent replied positively.
acceptance criteria At the five projects no criteria were mentioned
outlined in the
acceptance plan?
13 Was customer 5 100 Among the respondents, only 40% responded
acceptance positively.
requested for all
completed
deliverables?
14 Was the customer 5 60 60% of the respondents negatively responded.
involved in all
acceptance
reviews?
15 Is there anything 5 60 Poor design of projects brought in enormous delay in
you would like to schedule and hence, low satisfaction of customers.
add? Early loan repayment required before generating
income, unforeseen vehicle requirement are some of
issues raised by respondents.

47
 V. CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5. 1. Conclusion
Ethiopia, having adequate water resources, the level of drinkable water supply and sanitation
coverage was remained for many decades under 42% & 28% respectively until 2006 (MoWE,
2008). Due to this many people suffered from shortage of drinkable water and water borne
diseases. To improve the situation many long & short-term efforts are underway through various
interventions such as MDG/SDG, PASDEP and GTP strategies, program and the Water Supply
& Sanitation projects. These case study projects have been initiated in 2007, designed and
executed from 2013 to 2017 with an estimated cost of 38 million euros of which about 50% was
loan from European Investment Bank and the balance was granted by the European Union. The
projects were intended to serve about one million people dwelling in these towns. The required
impact of these projects was hardly achieved and did not fully satisfy the community as it failed
to provide safe water on time. The projects were delayed by about more than two years from its
original plan & half a year after completion. The early-termination experienced by the projects
due to failure of performance by the original contractor was not properly closed and there are no
termination report/documentations which could have served as base for learning lessons. They
were also unable to overcome water born disease problems as closing and handing over was
delayed. Failure to proper closure stalled release of remaining resources.

The Water Supply and Sanitation projects activities consisted purchase of pipes & fittings,
electromechanical equipment, digging boreholes, constructions, installations, pipe laying,
supervision, testing, electric power line connection, etc. After the failure of the first contract,
redesigned & re-planned contract & deployed six contractors and executed. During execution the
schedule has been extended, price adjustment was also made and then implementation completed
in mid-2017. Provisional acceptance was signed in August 2017. Throughout the execution
period and mainly end of execution meeting for gathering data for documentation was not
conducted. Such activities could have been made for future project lessons learning throughout
the life of the project. It also used to confirm that work is done to satisfy agreed requirement &
enable to complete procurement. The financial closure, transfer of final output and soliciting
feedback are important functions. However, considerable amount of activities including
48
communication were not given attention under these projects. The projects closure tradition &
practice in the context of this case study projects include only signing of Provisional Acceptance
Certificate, handover of outputs, retaining 5% of the contract value to enable a correction of
possible defects. Lessons to be learned, risk of sustainable use of project benefits were not given
attention. The use of standard project closure templates which can facilitate documentation of
important lessons learning information would have not been overlooked. Project need to use
standard project closure templates which facilitate documentation easy access of important
lessons learning information.

5. 2. Recommendations

From the study we can realize that communication planning in project closure is important as
one element to make ready & aware the owners about final deliverables, how implementation
was carried out, comment to fit their interest & ready to take over responsibilities & obligation at
the end. Project closeout is performed when user accepts project deliverables (AAUSC, 2011).

Knowledge management should occur throughout the project life, but it may be most apparent as
a project comes to closure. Learning gained at large from the process of performing the project.
We learn from our own project experiences as well as the experiences of others. Sharing lessons
learned among project team members prevents an organization from repeating the similar errors
and also allows them to take advantage of organizational best practices. Learning should be
deliberate, which was not the case for this study project. The case study project sector in
particular and projects managing organizations in general can be prepared to take advantage of
the key learning opportunities that projects provide.

Lessons learned session need to focus on identifying project successes and failures, to improve
future performance of projects.

Project managers have a professional obligation to conduct lessons learned sessions for projects
with key internal and external stakeholders, particularly if the project yielded less than desirable
results.

49
The case study analysis revealed that lack of knowledge and awareness hindered to practice
standard project closure principles. As a result, developing training course manual for internal
use has considerable importance as an action point.

The electric power supply not only weak but also delayed the supply of water & testing the
system in some towns (table 4.1.3). Project teams need to prepare detailed closure planning
which can be taken as a lesson. A project team would not put aside project closure detailed
planning including its good governance and capacity.

Project implementation efficiencies of subsequent projects by learning from such similar project
failure, for improving project management system will enhance business competencies,

Motivate experienced workers and avoid miss-management in a timely freeing or retaining,

Enhance sustainable use of project deliverables by introducing adequate data gathering meetings
for proper documentations,

Avoid/reduce additional costs such as interest on delayed loan repayment and opportunity cost of
money left idle. Encourage project stakeholders to get the necessary feedback, timely. Project
need to use standard project closure templates which facilitate documentation easy access of
important lessons learning information.

For sustainable use of a project it is important for a project team to pay attention to
standard/complete phases of projects than only immediate outputs.

Further study may be important on the significance of cost-benefits or financial implication of

release of resources in project closure.

Study on the culture of knowledge transfer from past project lessons to current similar project
records seem to be helpful.

50
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Ayele Tirfie (2013). Applied Project Management Concepts & Techniques
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Gido, Jack, Clements, James (2011). Successful Project Management 5th Edition.
Kerzner (2013). Project Management: A systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and
Controlling
Kevin-F & Ginny Edwards (2011). Key Activities During the Project Closure Phase
Livingston(2018).the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-project-closeout.
https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/.html /accessed on 20, April2018/ Makar, (2013).
The three best lessons I learned from a failed project https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-
consultant/the-three-best-lessons-i-learned-from-a-failed-
project/
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Maylor (2010). Project Management: https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/people/dr-harvey-maylor-
698215
Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity (2017). Water Supply & Sanitation Project for 15
Towns in Ethiopia.
MoWE(2008).water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Ethiopia
MoWIE (2007).Water Supply and Sanitation Project for fifteen Towns in Ethiopia
NAO (April 4, 2018). Contract FED/2013/331-603 Supply and Delivery of Utility & Analysis
Instruments for Agricultural Testing Laboratory for ECAE.
Pradip PMP (2018). How to close a project? https://www.simplilearn.com/how-to-close-a-
project-article

Prichard,(1997).Project lessons learned.

http://depts.washington.edu/pmgroup/GlobalCongress2006/PMT01_wp.pdf learned
/accessed on May 3, 2018/
Project Management Iinstitute (2018). what-is-project-management
https://www.pmi.org/about/learn-about-pmi/what-is-project-management# /accessed on
April 20, 2018/
Roberts (2013). Guide to Project Management: Getting it Right & Achieving Lasting Benefit.
Stephanie Ray (2017). Steps to Project Closure in Project Management 101 Discussion in
'PMP Silverman (1976). Project Management: Short Courses for Professional.
University of Illinois, (2013). Urbana Champaign. Project Closure Types of Project Closure
Normal Premature Perpetual Failed Project Changed.
Westland. (2006). The Project Management Life Cycle:
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Project_Management_Life_Cycle.html?id=lA
Vw6dfqVN0C

52
 APPENDIXS

Appendix I: Key informant Mail and Interview Guide

A. Standardized open-ended mail questionnaire on knowledge to get facts about a

topic.

First of all thank you for agreeing to be willing to receive and respond to this study
questionnaire. The purpose of this questionnaire is to explore information for academic research
and knowledge development (master’s partial fulfillment thesis). The research will focus on
project management specifically to know the practice of project closure phase. This study e-mail
information respects confidentiality of the respondent and the subject will not lead to accusation
of any interviewee. If quotes are used it will not be communicated without the permission of the
respondent. It is possible to ask questions related to this study if any at the end. It is possible to
contact the researcher using this business other time when needed.

• Tell me about yourself and your role in the project management:

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
• Tell me about this project closure practice both technically &
financially:______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
• How you detail your project closure plan and steps
followed?________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
• Can you explain to me the main project closure
activities?_______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
• Why do you practice project closure? If not
why?___________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
• Do you think your organization give due emphasis in project closure
practices?________________________________________________________________

53
 • What are the greatest accomplishments of the
project?_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
• How was the satisfactions/dissatisfactions condition of all
stakeholders?_____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
• Please explain the lessons drawn from this project
execution?_______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
• Were all expenses recorded in an expense register?
_________________________________________________________________
• Did regular quality control take place?
_________________________________________________________
• Were all deliverables recorded in a quality
register?____________________________________________________________
• Were clear acceptance criteria outlined in the acceptance plan?
____________________________________________________________
• Was customer acceptance requested for all completed deliverables?
______________________________________________________________________
• Was the customer involved in all acceptance reviews?
_________________________________________________________________
• Is there anything you would like to
add?____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
B. Interview Questionnaire

Likert scale of 1 – 5 points (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree)

Town____ Likert scale of 1 – 5 points (strongly disagree – stro. Agree)

Questions Strongly disagree disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Erly-Termination

Used template

Overlook closure

Early termination report

mutual agreement

Contractual closure

54
system tested

all bills paid

release license &

guarantee

all property has been

returned

no out-standing issues

excess budget released

work accepted

confirming completed
deliverables were accepted

procurement audited

Administrative closure

official handover
conducted timely

Lessons learned reviewed

terminal/closure report
prepared

report approved

remaining resource
released

Success acknowledged

Objective met

Satisfied

success celebrated

55
Appendix II: Research Schedule (time frame)

Activity Period in Weeks

W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10
Review literature x x
Conduct interview x
Validate data x
Analyze data x x
Report Writing x x
Amend report x
Finalize report x
Prepare ppt x
Present x

Appendix IV: general information of the 15 towns’ project

Town Region Km from No. of Contract Name of

A.A. beneficiaries value contractor
1.Adigrat Tigray 898
2. Ataye Amhara 269
3. Bonga, SNNP 449
4.Demidollo Oromia 652 Bigeta Busi Plc
5. Fiche >> 170
6. Gebre- >> 156 GTB Engin with
Guracha Bigeta
7. Holeta >> 45 >>
8. Injibara Amhara 452
9. Kemissie >> 325
10.Maychew Tigray 662 United Const
11. Mersa Amhara Abebe Negash
with NKH
12. Motta >> 368 Wegeret Con.
plc
13. Shoa- >> 222 Abebe Negash
Robit with NKH
14. Sodo, SNNP 383 SWWCE
15. Wereillu Amhara 481 Abebe Negash
with NKH
*The towns grouped in to lots and contract value is also for lots. Lot A (Sodo & Bonga= bir 27,531,604),
Lot B (Motta & Injibara=euro 2,403,657.9), Lot C (Shoa-Robit, Ataye, Kemissie, Mersa & Wereillu=euro
4,266,901.98), Lot D (Holeta, Fiche & GerbeGuracha= euro 3,137,893), Lot E (Adigrat & Maychew =
euro 2,550,731.5) Lot F (Dembidollo=bir 704,346).

56
Appendix V. Works Contract Data Summary for sample units
Item Ataye Fiche Injibara Mersa Sodo
Location Ataye town Injibara Town Mersa town SNNPR
Sodo town
Employer MoWIE MoWIE MoWIE MoWIE SNNPR
Water and
Irrigation
Development
Bureau
Consultant Nicholas Nicholas NOD with MS Nicholas Nicholas
O‟Dwyer O‟Dwyer O‟Dwyer with O‟Dwyer
with MSC with MSC MSC with MSC
Contractor AbebeNegash GTB Eng. Wegeret AbebeNegash SWWCE
in JV with with Bigeta Construction in JV with
NKH PLC NKH
DATE OF SIGNING October 6th 1 October 08 October October 6th 10th October
OF CONTRACT 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014
CONTRACT 4,422,132.51e 3,154,615.3 2,408,060.90 4,422,132.51eu 33,355,819.4
VALUE ORIGINAL uro for lot C euro for lot euro ro for lot C 5 birr
AND D
ADDENDEMS
TOTAL 4,188,554.95 3,627,807.59 3,607,795.16 4,188,554.95 50,005,174.9
CONTRACT less euro for lot euro less 3 birr
AMOUNT contingency D contingency
PERIOD OF 12 months 12 months 17 months 12 months 6 months
PERFORMANCE
COMMENCEMEN 20th 20 Nov. 20 November 20th November 26th
T DATE November 2014 2014 2014 November
2014 2014
COMPLETION 20th 20 Nov. 20 November 20th November 26th May
DATE November 2015 2015 2015 2015
2015
EXTENSION OF 2 months 2 months + 7 months 2 months 8.5 months
PERIOD 40days
APPROVED
REVISED 5th February March April 2016 5th February February 9th
COMPLETION 2016 12,2016 2016 2016
DATE:
PERCENTAGE OF 100% 100 % 100 % 100% 100%
WORK PLANNED
PERCENTAGE OF 98.81% 99.01% 99 % 98.81% 96.6%
WORK DONE
TOTAL
ADVANCE SUM 399,012.05 0 217,232.81 399,012.05 10,006,745.8
PAID euro 4.
Total payment 4,241,716.94 3,188,685.7 3,638,591.26 4,241,716.94 35,339,061.4
euro for lot C euro for lot euro euro for lot C bir
D
WORK COMPLETE All all None All

57
Appendix VI. Analysis of Closure Practices
Likert Scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, Descriptive
strongly agree 1 – 5 respectively)

Item 1 2 3 4 5 Total Me SD
an

Early Cou % Cou % Co % Cou % Coun % Cou %

terminatio nt nt un nt t nt
n t

Used 1 4 7 28 11 44 5 20 1 4 25 100 5 1.7

template 3

Didn’t 6 23 10 38 5 19 4 15 1 4 26 87 5.2 1.3

overlook
closure

Early 7 29 10 41 5 21 1 4 1 4 24 99 4.8 1.6

termination
report
prepared

Closed by 0 0 0 0 9 35 7 27 10 3 26 87 5.2 1.9

mutual 8
agreement

Average 17 15.5 28 25 31 29 15 14 17 1 108 90 5 1.6

for Early 6 3
terminatio
n

Contractu
al closure

system 0 0 1 4 6 22 12 44 8 2 27 90 5.4 1.9

tested 9 5

all bills 5 20 6 24 12 4 2 8 1 4 25 100 5 1.7

paid 8 7

release 3 13 4 17 10 43 1 4 5 2 23 77 4.6 1.4

license & 2 3
guarantee

all property 2 8 3 12 10 4 5 20 5 2 25 83 5 1.2

has been 0 0 5
returned

no out- 1 4 5 20 9 36 3 12 7 2 25 83 5 1.2
standing 8 9

58
issues

excess fund 0 0 2 8 15 6 6 25 1 4 24 96 4.8 2.3

released 2 6

work 0 0 1 4 4 17 14 58 5 2 24 96 4.8 2.0

accepted 1 7

procuremen 0 0 1 4 16 6 6 24 2 8 25 100 5 2.4

t audited 4 7

Aver. for 19 9 29 14 7 3 53 24 36 1 210 87 4.95 1.8

Contract 3 5 7 2
Closure

Administr
ative
closure

official 1 4 3 12 3 12 12 46 7 2 26 87 5.2 1.7

handover 7 5
conducted

Lessons 4 15 9 33 11 37 3 10 0 0 27 90 5.4 1.7

learned 6
reviewed

Closure 6 20 10 33 9 3 4 13 1 3 30 100 6 1.3

report 0 6
prepared

report 6 21 10 36 7 2 5 18 0 0 28 93 5.6 1.4

approved 5

remaining 8 27 10 33 11 37 1 3 0 0 30 100 6 1.9

resource
released

Objective 2 7 3 11 4 14 17 61 2 7 28 93 5.6 2.4

met 7

Satisfied 1 3 4 14 4 14 15 52 5 1 29 97 5.8 2
7

success 3 11 5 19 4 15 8 30 6 2 26 87 5.2 0.7

celebrated 3 7

Average 31 13.5 54 24 53 23 65 29 21 1 224 93 5.6 1.7

for Admn. 0
Closure

59
Appendix VII. Project Closeout Checklist
Company XYZ
Project Name:___________________ Closeout Date:
_________________
Project Team: _________________________
Project Manager:_____________________
Sponsor:___________________________
Item Responsible Target date Completion date
Punch List Complete
Notice of Punch List Completion
Certificate of Substantial Completion
Utilities Transferred to owner
Notice to owner on Insurance
Facility Manual
As-Built Drawings
Attach Job Files to Database
Update Projects Database
Final Retainage Building
Release of Subcontractor Retainage
Complete Subcontractor Evaluations
Team Close-Out Meeting
Send Out Owner Survey
Bond Release
Estimating Feedback Cost Report
Approved for Closeout:
----------------------- --------------------- ------------------------------
Project Manager Sponsor Vice President
Figure 2: Example of Project Closeout Checklist

60
Appendix VIII.
To be completed by the Project Manager upon acceptance of the final report for every works contract over EUR 5,000,000
CONTRACTOR ASSESSMENT FORM
FOR WORKS CONTRACTS
<Contract title> <Location>
<Contract reference code>

1 CONTRACTOR

Name(s) of firm(s)
Leader*
Partner 2*
Etc … *

*add/delete additional lines for partners as appropriate.

Note that a sub-contractor is not considered to be a partner for the purposes of this assessment
form.

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2 IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD

From < Commencement date of the To < Date at least 1 year after the
contract > date of final acceptance >

3 PERFORMANCE RATING OF CONTRACTOR

Factor Rating Comments (if rating is not 3)

Achievement of contract objectives

(as per the Technical Specifications)

Ability to meet deadlines

Quality of work

4 PERFORMANCE RATING OF KEY PERSONNEL

Job management
Client relations

effectiveness

competence
Technical
Personal

Overall
Written

&
Verbal

Name

5 PROJECT MANAGER

Name

Signature

Date

Source: EC website

62
Appendix IX. Performance Baseline

Documenting how the project performed against each established goal in the plan

Project Business Objective Performance Goal Results

Appendix X. Budget Baseline

State the planned cost as approved in the initial cost baseline & project charter. Document
and explain all costs, variances including approved changes. (in $ 000)

Items of expenditures Planned Actual Variance Explanation

Appendix XI. Schedule Baseline

WBS elements Planned Actual Planned Actual variance Explanation

activities start date start date finish date finish date of variance

Appendix XII. Project Documentation

Report/document Media used Storage location Disposition

63