انتخاب پروژه استراتژیک در بخش دولتی: پروژه های ساخت و ساز وزارت دفاع در تایلند

Effective and efficient selection of projects in strategy-focused environments is extremely vital for maintaining organizational sustainability. The process of decision making presents itself as a complex scenario involving multi stages, more especially in the public sector. Such scenarios facade as bottlenecks to the success of projects because breaking down complexities is inconceivable without a proper understanding of its content. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing three stages of the project selection process namely, conceptual stage, design stage, and final approval stage. In order to achieve this, data related to factors influencing construction project selection in the Thailand’s Ministry of Defence was collected and analyzed. The obtained result herein shows that 19 out of 32 factors influencing project selection in the three stages are significantly different.

In today’s dynamic environment, organizations need to adjust themselves for the common goal of sustainability. In order to accomplish this goal, top management of organizations must have a vision which incorporates the well-crafted and well-understood strategies of the organization [1]. Many studies reveal that organizations emphasizing on strategic management generally out-perform those which do not [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] and [7]. The most difficult stage in strategic management is not how organizations formulate strategy but how they implement it [8] and [9]. One of the most important steps in strategy implementation is project (or program or activity) selection, which is the organization’s essence in accomplishing its ultimate goal. Kaplan and Norton [9] confirmed the importance of project selection by stating that a critical component for linking strategy to short-term actions is opting for new initiatives. The impact of the Thailand’s economic crisis in 1997 has not only been invasive and far-reaching but has also led to the need for excessive resources for the course of sustainability development in every sector. The public sector has been greatly instrumental towards the country’s development and has therefore, had to adjust itself towards the goal of sustainable development of the country. In the past decades, the public sector had steadily expanded into a vast organization with numerous rules, regulations, and intricate procedures. On the other hand, public sector organizations focused on compliance with prevailing regulations rather than on results or meeting the needs of society. These then inevitably lead to ineffective budget utilization. Consequently, a major core function of the existing management components which the Thai government needs to reform is Budget Management. This reform should thus focus on improving the budget management system by placing emphasis on outputs and outcomes. It is believed that effective budget management will lead to improved public management processes and will serve as a mechanism to control and examine the utilization of resources for the general public. Such system forces governmental organizations to consider the much larger picture at the conceptual stage, emphasize on the strategic importance of projects at the design stage, and look far beyond set missions to enhance added value to the country at the final approval stage of construction projects. A study of the various factors influencing project selection after such strategic performance-based budgeting is implemented by the Thai government would contribute to improving this process. Thailand’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) is chosen as the focus of this study due to its nature of work which consists of state defence and development. In order to achieve optimal utilization of public resources, military budget needs to be effectively utilized not only in times of trouble (wars and unrests, etc.) but also at other times. This is with special reference to the budget allotted for military construction projects, for which the socio-economic value can be regarded as high as national security. Construction project selection process in the Thai Ministry of Defence is very long, taking at least 18 months from the submittal of proposal up to the budget allocation. There are many staff officers working in the areas of planning and budgeting and have at least 4 committees such as Project Selection Committee and Resource Management Committee being involved in this process. Extremely diversifying factors are considered along this process such as, national security and socio-economic value. Moreover, under the public reform program, the Royal Thai Government needs that MOD involves more in country development by aiming to achieve maximum value from construction project investments in MOD. This leads MOD to impose new factors for considering construction projects. Therefore, the objective of this research study is to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing the three stages of the military construction project selection process namely conceptual stage, design stage, and final approval stage. It is expected that the output of this study can be utilized as the basis for improving the processes and criteria of construction project selection in MOD.

Due to the implementation of the strategic performance-based budgeting by the Thai government as a part of public reform, the factors influencing project selection had changed. In addition, construction project selection process in the Thai Ministry of Defence is very long, taking at least 18 months from the submittal of proposal up to the budget allocation. There are many staff officers working in the areas of planning and budgeting and have at least 4 committees such as Project Selection Committee and Resource Management Committee being involved in this process. Extremely diversifying factors are considered along this process such as, national security and socio-economic value. Moreover, under the public reform program, the Royal Thai Government needs that MOD involves more in country development by aiming to achieve maximum value from construction project investments in MOD. This leads MOD to impose new factors for considering construction projects. Therefore, the objective of this research study is to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing the three stages of the military construction project selection process namely conceptual stage, design stage, and final approval stage. It is expected that the output of this study can be utilized as the basis for improving the processes and criteria of construction project selection in MOD. The importance of factors influencing these three stages of the construction project selection in the Thai Ministry of Defence was collated by a questionnaire survey in order to test the hypothesis: importance of factors at the different stages are similar or dissimilar. The results show that the most three important factors are project objective (4.64), project rationale (4.53), and mission of MOD (4.49) in the conceptual stage; readiness to implement (4.39), conformance to regulations and laws (4.38), and project budget (4.30) in the design stage; and project objective (4.48), action plan of MOD (4.41), and project rationale (4.38) in the final approval stage. It also shows that 19 out of 32 factors influencing construction project selection in the different stages are significantly different. This study will be beneficial for the Thai Ministry of Defence in construction project selection since the findings pointed out that the MOD Budget Request Form is currently being used as a guideline for project development needs revision to incorporate emerging national concerns into consideration. These are for example, improving the quality of life in remote areas, drug prevention and suppression, etc. Moreover, the composition of approved committee needs to include officers having experiences in the area beyond the national security to ensure that the approved projects conform to the government’s strategic direction. By changing the MOD Budget Request Form and redesigning committees’ composition, decision making for project selection at each stage will be speedily revolved and prevent delay of iterative process in requesting for further information. Selecting construction projects for defence might be different from country to country. This depends on various factors such as mission, threat and economic well-being of a country. In Thailand, selecting construction projects as shown in the results of this study is governed by national security and socio-economic added value. Therefore, there is no single set of criteria that fits on military construction project selection for every country. However, the findings of this study can serve as a guideline for selection criteria of military construction projects in other counties, by adapting to conform to missions, existing and potential threat as well as economic well-being of each country.