Audit of USAID/Egypt"s monitoring of construction management services for water and wastewater construction contracts

Reportedly the largest public health and environmental endeavor in the world, the four projects taken together cost about $900 million. Nineteen contractors are building wastewater treatment plants, pump stations, elevated tanks, wastewater collectors, and culverts which will serve over 9 million people -- almost 20% of Egypt"s population. The earliest of the four projects began in 1979 and the most recent in 1988; all four are to be completed in 1994 or 1995. As is its normal practice for large construction projects, USAID/E contracted with or financed contracts with five professional engineering firms, at a cost of about $162 million, as construction managers. The audit found that USAID/E"s construction management system was implemented in accordance with A.I.D. policies, except that reporting by construction managers and project officers could be strengthened. USAID/E did not require construction managers to provide information in monthly progress reports on quality assurance and control workloads or on actual versus budgeted person-months. In addition, USAID/E did not implement useful controls, such as a project officer"s individual file for each contract and the officer"s periodic assessment of contractor performance.