Corruption as a Source of Government Project Failure in Developing Countries

Evidence from Ghana

Article Risk Management, Ethics, Government 1 June 2018

Project Management Journal

Damoah, Isaac Sakyi | Akwei, Cynthia A. | Amoako, Isaac Oduro | Botchie, David

How to cite this article:

Damoah, I. S., Akwei, C. A., Amoako, I. O., & Botchie, D. (2018). Corruption as a Source of Government Project Failure in Developing Countries: Evidence from Ghana. Project Management Journal, 49(3), 17–33. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/8756972818770587

Reprints and Permissions

This study explores how corruption impacts the failure of government projects in developing countries with evidence from the Ghanaian context. This study solicits the perceptions of project management practitioners (14), contractors (6), government officials (clients; 5), and the general public (5) on the subject. The findings indicate that corruption influences government project failure on all the failure criteria that were used for the evaluation. However, corruption influences failure at two different levels: project management and product phase. At the project management level, corruption has direct influence, while at the product phase level, the influence is indirect.

Related Content

Research Summary Risk Management, Strategy, Ethics, Sustainability April 2016

Rethink! Project Stakeholder Management

By Huemann, Martina | Eskerod, Pernille | Ringhofer, Claudia Based on the research of Martina Huemann, Pernille Eskerod, and Claudia Ringhofer, many projects fail because stakeholders’ expectations and interests are not sufficiently steered and managed. This…
Conference Paper Ethics, Risk Management, Leadership 5 May 2014

The leader in the mirror

By Ethics Member Advisory Group - Project Management Institute PMI's Ethics Member Advisory Group (EMAG) discusses the value of trust as a leadership quality among project managers. When assessing risk, defining uncertainty becomes essential to establishing…
Conference Paper Risk Management, Ethics, Leadership 29 October 2013

Great project leadership

Using the sinking of the Titanic as an example and contrasting it with the story of the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica, this paper describes how project managers can take specific leadership…
Article Risk Management, Ethics, Governance September 2007

PM Network

Owning up

By Greengard, Samuel Being accountable requires more responsibility than only answering for one's actions. It also involves understanding one's role and abiding by a set of common standards. This paper discusses how…
Article Program Management, Risk Management, Ethics November 2006

PM Network

Doing well by doing good

By Hildebrand, Carol South Africa is a country long-beseiged by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This article examines how one South African business--Standard Bank--has implemented an health and testing program to educate its…

Corruption as a Source of Government Project Failure in Developing Countries

Evidence from Ghana

Related Content

Rethink! Project Stakeholder Management

The leader in the mirror

Great project leadership

Owning up

Doing well by doing good