Much of the overrun that you hear of in, eg, the US and Canada is because of cost-plus contracts negotiated with the private sector. It’s been a very, very long since we’ve seen purely public offerings.
I’d also challenge someone who says “the private sector is more effective”. I get the impression they’ve never worked at private company larger than a neighbourhood coffee shop. I’ve worked a F50 companies; trust me, they can piss money away and blow through deadlines like it’s nobody’s business. Try to do an ERP conversion some day.
Also to tack on, you only hear about the projects that blow their budget, because they are the problem projects. You don’t hear about the ≈75% of projects that come in “on time*” and under budget, because that’s the baseline of what is expected.
I don’t know what a ERP conversion is but it sounds yucky. I double my fee when contracting designs for the government, and engineers who can’t cut it end up taking government jobs. Unless the entire culture of government workers change, in my opinion, you have described a fever dream.
Actually, yes. They can be.
Much of the overrun that you hear of in, eg, the US and Canada is because of cost-plus contracts negotiated with the private sector. It’s been a very, very long since we’ve seen purely public offerings.
I’d also challenge someone who says “the private sector is more effective”. I get the impression they’ve never worked at private company larger than a neighbourhood coffee shop. I’ve worked a F50 companies; trust me, they can piss money away and blow through deadlines like it’s nobody’s business. Try to do an ERP conversion some day.
Also to tack on, you only hear about the projects that blow their budget, because they are the problem projects. You don’t hear about the ≈75% of projects that come in “on time*” and under budget, because that’s the baseline of what is expected.
*For varying definitions of “on time.”
I don’t know what a ERP conversion is but it sounds yucky. I double my fee when contracting designs for the government, and engineers who can’t cut it end up taking government jobs. Unless the entire culture of government workers change, in my opinion, you have described a fever dream.