Infrastructure Watch Dashboard: Research Methodology

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What is Infrastructure Watch dashboard?

Infrastructure Watch is a dashboard under publicfinance.lk that assesses proactive disclosure of information online in relation to large scale infrastructure projects that are currently being implemented. This is as per the requirement by the Right to Information (RTI) Act No. 12 of 2016.

What motivated us to do this?

During our research on infrastructure projects, we identified that,

The awareness among government agencies as well as the public about information that the agencies must disclose under Section 9(1)(b) of RTI Act remains very low.
The online availability and accessibility of information about infrastructure projects undertaken by the government remains very low.
The low level of disclosure and resulting opacity creates fertile ground for corruption/malpractices, higher costs, lower quality and is a key reason for low public confidence and trust in the projects and how they are executed.

So, we created this dashboard with the aim of

Increasing awareness among government agencies as well as the public of the proactive disclosure requirements under RTI Act and its importance.
Creating public demand for compliance with the proactive disclosure by publishing information and analysis of the level of compliance.
Contributing to enhance the space for public engagement in infrastructure decision making process and reduce room for corruption/malpractices by increasing visibility of the projects.

Research Methodology

What criteria were used to select the projects?

2022 Assessment

60 large scale infrastructure projects worth LKR 1.08 trillion were assessed. The projects were selected based on the following criteria:

Projects that commenced in 2019 and that have not been completed as of June 2021 with at least 1% of Cumulative Physical Progress as per the 2021 second quarter report of Department of Project Management and Monitoring (DPMM).
Large scale projects (Threshold – foreign over LKR 32.5 million and local over LKR 500,000) funded through foreign and local sources of funding.
Projects included in the assessment were shortlisted based on the highest total estimated cost.
Online availability of information on projects was assessed from December 2021 to March 2022.

2023 Assessment

60 large scale infrastructure projects worth LKR 2.54 trillion were assessed.

Of these, 37 projects were selected from the 2022 assessment based on the following criteria:
- Projects from the 2022 assessment that were ongoing as of the 30th of September 2022 as per the 2022 third quarter report of the Department of Project Management and Monitoring were shortlisted.
- From this list, 37 projects with the least amount of Cumulative Physical Progress were selected (however, with at least 0.1% of Cumulative Physical Progress).
The balance 23 projects for the 2023 assessment were selected from the 2022 third quarter report of the Department of Project Management and Monitoring based on the following criteria:
- Projects that had commenced in 2019 and had not been completed as of the 30th of September 2022 with at least 0.1% of Cumulative Physical Progress were shortlisted.
- The projects were then selected based on the highest total estimated cost.
- Large scale infrastructure development projects (Threshold – foreign over LKR 32.5 million and local over LKR 500,000) funded through foreign and local sources of funding.
Online availability of information on projects was assessed from January 2023 to April 2023.

What types of information must agencies disclose proactively?

According to guidelines issued by the RTI Commission in terms of Section 9(1)(b) of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016 the agencies are required to disclose types of information listed in the table below. For this assessment, in total 40 points of information were selected, under five broad categories.

As a rule, that notice of a proposed project as prescribed under Section 9(1)(b) of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016, the ministries are required to disclose information at least three months prior to commencement of such project.

Category	No	Information Point	Regulation on Proactive disclosure
Project Details	1	Project Description	Guidelines issued by the RTI Commission in terms of Section 9(1)(b) of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016
	2	Implementation ministry
	3	Execution agency
	4	Project Location (Province, District, Division, location)
	5	Proposed commencement date
	6	Projected conclusion date
Rationale & Beneficiaries	7	Project Objectives/ Goals
	8	Expected Project Outputs/Benefits
	9	Target beneficiaries/stake holders
	10	Is there a likelihood of any citizen being affected by the implementation of the proposed project? – Yes / No
	11	If yes, has adequate notice been provided to them and/or have they been consulted in respect of the project? – Yes / No
	12	If no, explain reasons for such omission
	13	Provide details/description of steps being taken to provide compensation/reparations to affected parties,
	14	Project justification (i.e. financial and social cost benefit)
Budget & Financial Details	15	Total estimated costs
	16	Agreed Amounts [Currency payable and equivalent in LKR]
	17	Source of finance (Foreign/ Local/ Other – eg Public Private Partnership) - Identify the foreign or local entities/ institutions involved in financing the project
	18	If the proposed project is to be implemented on the basis of a Public Private Partnerships, provide the main terms and conditions of agreement between the Government and the private sector party, including details of equity and profit share bases, financial information such as fees, tolls, or other kinds of revenue that may be collected by private sector parties under authorization from the Government.
	19	List all additional benefits/concessions offered to the contractor or private parties at the cost/expense of the State/Government of Sri Lanka to implement the proposed project
Approvals & Clearances	20	Date of proposed project approval from the Department of National Planning/ Economic Development Committee/ the Cabinet/Board of Investment /Provincial Council /Local Council/ Relevant Authority, as relevant
	21	Bid evaluations? Yes / No (Include date)
	22	Feasibility studies? Yes / No (Include date)
	23	Technical evaluations? Yes / No (Include date)
	24	Financial evaluations? Yes / No (Include date)
	25	Describe the Environmental Impacts on physical, biological, socio-cultural or aesthetic status, if any?
	26	Has an environmental impact assessment been carried out, where relevant? Yes / No
	27	If yes, provide details of the institution/entity that carried out the environmental impact assessment and date(s) of report(s)
	28	If no, provide reasons for the omission
	29	Have approvals from relevant regulatory agencies been obtained, where applicable? – Yes / No
	30	If yes, from which agencies and dates of such approval
	31	What approvals are pending?
Procurement & Contracts	32	Is the project solicited or unsolicited?
	33	If unsolicited, please provide details of the project proponent, project proposal, date when such proposal was made
	34	If funding for unsolicited projects are externally sourced Name of the funder and conditions of financing
	35	Provide details of the supplier/vendor/contractor who will implement the project
	36	Was the contract awarded?
	37	If yes, date of execution of contract
	38	If not, proposed date of execution of contract?
	39	State the number of bidders and relevant names/contact details of those who submitted bids for the project
	40	Indicate any complaints with handling mechanism conforming to accepted standards of fairness and transparency, which is accessible to the public

What online sources were used for the assessment?

Since the Act states the ministers are responsible for proactively disclosing information, The guidelines issued by the RTI Commission states that information relating to a proposed project can be provided ‘in a digital electronic format on the Ministry web site in Sinhala and Tamil, and if feasible in English’. The assessment of online disclosure was thus carried out by investigating the availability of information on the websites of the responsible Ministries as well as the respective line agencies.

The respective agencies were identified by using the information in the ‘Progress of Mega Scale Development Projects’ reports published by Department of Project Management and Monitoring (DPMM).

It is important to note that as per the Act, the agencies can use different methods to proactively disclose information Online and Over the Counter and some other means such as billboards. This assessment investigated the level of disclosure online via the respective website/s of the responsible ministry/government agency.

The assessment investigated the availability of each type of information on the website and accessibility of the published information in all three languages: English, Sinhala and Tamil.

What method was used to calculate the average level of disclosure?

The average level of proactive disclosure of information for each project has been calculated by assessing the proportion of the points of information which are applicable[1] that has been disclosed in official verified sources.

If the information is available on the website, it has been marked as “Data available”, and if there is no mention about the information point on the website, it has been marked as “Data unavailable”.

What method was used to calculate accessibility of information (or availability in all three languages)?

Assessed of the degree to which the information proactively disclosed in all three languages.
Identified the percentage of information only available in English; at least in Sinhala; at least in Tamil.

Limitations

Infrastructure Watch assessed only the online availability of information with the lowest benchmark of disclosure. It has not assessed the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of the information disclosed.
The reason for the lower number of foreign funded projects compared to domestic infrastructure projects is due to the lower number of foreign projects undertaken during the period under consideration.
As per the RTI Act, agencies can use online and offline methods to proactively disclose information. This assessment only investigated the level of disclosure online via the respective website/s of the responsible ministry/government agency.

[1] It is important to note that, all points of information are not equally applicable to all projects. For an example: loan amounts are not applicable for the projects which are funded by government of Sri Lanka. Therefore, when calculating the level of disclosure, we have only taken into consideration the number of applicable points of information for each project.

2022-05-17

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