Report - Jabatan Taman Laut Malaysia - NRE

longstanding and established relationships with many of the stakeholders.PMU staff enjoys positive stakeholder relationships.The weaknesses of some project relationships were also explored. As theProject Manager (PM) has only recently been appointed it is timely to clarifythe role, functions and responsibilities between the National Project Director(NPD) and the PM. In turn the PM will need to undertake a similar exercisewith the staff of the PMU. This must be undertaken to ensure full projectresponsibilities are allocated to help ensure the effectiveness of projectimplementation. Some weakness was observed in part caused by a lack ofclarity and understanding about roles and the lower priority of someactivities e.g. the Communication Action Plan. The relationships within theproject were functional and are expected to strengthen as the PM assumesfull responsibilities and the NPD returns to role – has been covering the PMrole for 5 months.The management of the consultant’s contract and payments requires urgentattention and resolution. From the perspective of the PMU severalindividuals within the consultancy unit have not delivered their sections tothe standard and quality required by DMPM. Therefore payment to allconsultants of consultancy fees has been withheld for more than a year.This has resulted in the consultancy becoming demotivated and thinking ofwithdrawing from the project. Their contract is understood to provide forpayments to be made when all due work is completed – this has provenproblematic when some consultants have delivered on time and others aredelayed (e.g. Quarterly Report 4 (Stocktaking Report), alternative livelihoods– awaiting approval of the cooperative mechanism, CCC yet to be formallyestablished) or struggling to deliver because of constraints beyond theircontrol (e.g. Management Plan - requires some base information fordetermining zonation for management purposes thought to be available butthe reality is otherwise and several changes being made to the consultantmarine biologist position who is leadwriter for “Managing Marine ParkWaters” section of the plan). Flexibility toexercise judgement is required to ensurethe consultants are managed effectivelye.g. to allow payment forthwith for workscompleted satisfactorily.The consultant’s reports should be madeavailable to those in MP managementroles for input and review, and oncecompleted available as a managementresource.Active management by the PMU isrequired to ensure early identification ofproblems and their fast resolution.Swiftlet nesting house -possible alternative livelihood21