Defence Minister’s excuses for cost surges in construction projects – promises improvements in monitoring

Certain construction projects organised by the defence sector meet certain risks, such as significant surge of costs or deviations from the plan, as concluded by the Ministry of Defence.

Following the precedent with the “military sculptural composition” outside of Ādaži military base, Minister of Defence Andris Sprūds ordered an in-depth analysis of the construction programmes of existing projects with a report on the projects in which costs have increased by 30% or more, projects which have experienced any deviations from plans, as well as projects under risks of failure, as confirmed by the ministry.

This analysis helped identify a number of projects that are under risks and whose implementation has been put under scrupulous monitoring.

In parallel to that, the minister also ordered the ministry to develop and implement specific improvements to the system for construction-related procurement procedures and their monitoring.

Therefore, first of all, additional control mechanisms will be introduced in the construction programs to proactively and timely identify sites where significant cost increases of 30% or more are expected, and they will apply not only to projects above one million euros, but the monitoring threshold will be lowered.

Secondly, it is necessary to move towards the digitisation of construction project systems in order to ensure much more transparent monitoring, strengthen internal control and allow a much more expeditious tracking of project risk elements, such as increasing expenses, the ministry said.

Thirdly, in the future, the possibilities of standardization of NBS projects should be assessed much more actively, including using NATO standards and good practices of allied countries.

LETA previously reported that in October, an environmental object described by the defence industry as a “composition of militarized sculpture” was completed at the military base of the National Armed Forces in Kadaga. There, a decommissioned armoured personnel carrier “CVR(T)” was put on a concrete pedestal. About EUR 183 000 were spent on the creation of this object.