Governance schemes for major public investment projects: A comparative study of principles and practices in six countries.

Abstract

This report compares the Norwegian scheme for quality assurance of major public projects, also referred to as the State Project Model, to similar schemes in five other OECD countries, i.e. Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK and Canada (Quebec). The schemes have many features in common – all of them were introduced after the turn of the millennium and place governance responsibility at a high level in the political system. There are also a number of differences, for example with regard to who performs quality assurance, the delineation between technical matters and politics, as well as the scope of such schemes. The study shows that Norway and the Nordic countries have opted for schemes that are fairly simple, with intervention points in the front-end phase only and not during implementation, unlike the other countries. The study is primarily an overview, and it is too early to say anything about the effects of the other schemes, which are more recent than the Norwegian scheme.