Central Asia - Central Asia Road Links - Phase 1

The ICR (paragraph 23) notes that the project documents contained no details on the Page 5 of 15 Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) Implementation Completion Report (ICR) Review Central Asia Road Links - Phase 1 (P132270) methodology followed in calculating the baseline for this index, and the staff of the Investment Project Implementation Group (IPIG) were not trained in calculating the index. [...] The Financing Agreement of the project had an effectiveness condition that specified that the OBI RD was to be responsible for road maintenance works along the OBI - Tajikistan road corridor as per the SLA (the aim of the SLA was to move away from the traditional form of force account works, that is, payments based on the consumed resources, and to link payments to results). [...] The actual cost of establishing the equipment was five times the original cost, due to a combination of factors, including technical design issues relating to the physical layout of the stations, technological challenges related to the absence of power and internet, system architecture and software components and to integrate the new HSWIM systems with the existing Low speed Weigh in Motion system [...] There is risk to the activities financed under the project, given the political instability in the region and disputes over borders (over issues such as water for irrigation purposes and pasture grounds) between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan (ICR, paragraph 88). [...] The lack of candor on the part of the supervision team undermined the ability of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) to make effective corrective proposals.