Public management: what methodological options for analysis of public investment projects in Portugal?

Abstract

This paper intends to provide a deeper understanding about the current public best practices applied in organizations/countries worldwide. Although the international advanced practices on cost benefit analysis of public investment projects, in Portugal, the last twenty years it was found serious failures in the process of appraisal and evaluation of public investment projects, which led to high financial deviations with strong consequences for current and future taxpayers. For this reason, this paper seeks to identify the best international practices for Portuguese public sector, in order to provide managers, auditors and policy makers, tools and technics for successful investment projects in the near future. This paper presents the main results from a research about the current evaluation projects best practices used by high developed countries, where it was possible to conclude that (1) risk management and (2) examines/review projects at key decisions points are critical in the process of projects appraisals. For example, a peer examine provides the project team with an independent view of the current progress of the project and assurance that it can proceed successfully to the next stage.