Management in Implementation of Government Sponsored Projects in Kenya: A Survey oF Fish Ponds Projects in Gatundu South District- Kenya

The principal aim of the study was to assess the influence of scope management as a tool in project management in implementation of government funded projects to establish if such projects apply the PMBOK® (2000) recommended techniques of defining scope, planning for the scope and change control mechanisms in place as such projects progress. The study focused on fish ponds projects in Gatundu south District in Kenya which were under Economic Stimulus Program, a government initiative to address issues of food sustainability, unemployment and overall economic growth of the economy. The study was motivated by the observation that the projects were initiated as pilot projects in 140 constituencies which were later to be rolled out in other constituencies in the country. However some of the projects didn’t achieve their intended objectives. The study targeted the 200 fish pond projects Gatundu south District where a sample of 20 fish pond projects were identified and formed the sample. The respondents for the study were the fish pond owners. Questionnaires were prepared and hand delivered to the respondents to assist in data collection which was later analyzed through descriptive statistics and presented with frequency tables.
Among the parameters probed were projects scope definition which included stakeholder’s involvement in projects designing, quality and sources of water for the ponds, source of feeds, and training of the farmers before initiation of the projects. The nature of planning for the projects studied included the sustainability of the projects in terms of continues supply of water and feeds, marketing structures in place for the produce and public sensitization as the projects progressed. Change control mechanisms considered included flood and drought mitigation structures, change in pond specifications and variations in feed. From the study what emerged is that projects scope was not adequately defined before the initiation of the projects and these led to subsequent insufficient planning for the projects. This was found to have highly contributed to projects failure. It would be recommendable that before the projects are rolled out, there should be clear scope definition by all stakeholders to include all the project requirements and this would give way to adequate planning for successful completion of the projects.