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Continuing our series of interviews with speakers at IPWEA’s 2015 conference, PWPro speaks to the man behind the overhaul of Fiji’s road systems.
In 2012, Fiji embarked on one of the most ambitious infrastructure upgrades the Southern Hemisphere has ever seen. Over three years, a staggering $1.5bn investment has been made in overhauling the county’s road infrastructure.
Fiji Roads Authority Chief Executive Neil Cook is the past President of Ingenium, which became IPWEA New Zealand upon its merger with IPWEA (Australasia) in 2013. He was recruited by the Fiji Government from his role as Engineering Manager at Wairoa District Council, New Zealand.
As he nears the end of his three-year contract, he talks to conference delegates about the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Q. How did you come to be Chief Executive Officer of the Fiji Road Authority?
I suppose the role came to me because of my time as President of IPWEA. I had a name recognition through that and the people who were advising the government up there made me aware of the opportunity.
I had a look at the role and I could relate to what the government was trying to achieve with their roading. That was enough for me to take it a step further and start having a chat to people up here.
It seemed to drag on for a while but eventually we came to an arrangement and I ended up here trying to establish a roading authority from what was not quite a blank canvas but not far off it.
Q. How long have you been in the role?
I came here in January 2013 on a three-year contract. So I’m in year three. The transition here has happened remarkably fast from the government department making the decision in late 2011 to reform.
It was possibly not just a reform, but a revolution. The decision was effectively to scrap the existing regime and to set up the Fiji Roads Authority and outsource practically all the professional services and all of the physical works – so very similar to the New Zealand local authority set up.
Q. How were you able to make such substantial changes so quickly?
The change did happen very, very quickly. We’ve had comments in the past from experts from the World Bank and agencies of the like that say we’ve done here in Fiji in two years, what would typically take five or more years for a reform of this nature.
I think there’s a combination of things [that helped]. [These included] political will and commitment from the highest levels of government that then supported the right people and the right roles to get it done.
Q. Who were the people responsible for the change in approach?
I would have to say my former boss and chairman, who is now my minister, was an absolutely critical driving force in the reform. He is very much a driven and committed individual who was able to cut through a lot of the obstacles that were there.
The team within MWH – who were the supporting consultants – certain individuals within that entity were absolutely driven and passionate about getting this reform done.
Then there’s myself and my own team. We started this project off in an environment which was incredibly hostile towards the whole reform. There were many vested interests that didn’t want it to happen and continued to threaten its existence for the first couple of years. It’s settled down now.
It was very brave decision in my view for [my team members] to come on board because they were potentially burning bridges with other parts of government and the vested interests.
Q. What stage is the project at now?
I’m pretty comfortable with what we’ve achieved to date. We are probably in a bit of a consolidation of the gains that we have made but there’s also a bit of an evolution still going on.
We have moved so quickly that we are actually now at a point where we are looking at what does the FRA need to look like for the next five years. It’s a little different to what it needed to look like to enact this significant change for government.
We’ve had a very heavy reliance on a principal consultant and certainly the government expects that to broaden out over time. We’ve had a very lean and mean focus for FRA, and we want that to continue, but we also recognise by necessity at the time there were things that were outsourced that are better and more appropriately managed within the owner operation.
Q. What will your session at IPWEA’s Rotorua Conference entail?
We want to take people on a journey. It’s a telling of the story, if you like. In Fiji we would call it a ‘talanoa’ session. It’s really just taking people on the journey from the government department, the inefficiencies, the corruption, and through the pain and stress of the transition.
I’m hopeful that my minister will be there to share his views on how it all happened because he was right at the heart of the decision making to make it happen.
They’ll hear from myself about the story of how we built the FRA. The team from MWH who were here right at the start, guided the government on the reform and then supported the establishment of the FRA [will also be there].
Q. Who should come along to the session?
There will be a lot of people from around the world who perhaps haven’t moved into this outsource model, but are maybe considering it. We are perhaps an example of how it can be done in a very fast time frame and quite effectively. But, those broader themes of commitment and overcoming obstacles and a single-minded focus on an outcome, that we are collectively trying to achieve, those messages are pretty universal and not just relating to roading either.
IPWEA 2015 Conference
Early bird tickets close on 30 April so make sure you ...