Technical competency of client project manager in managing public projects in Malaysia

How well the stakeholders play their part in the project management relatively contributes to the success of construction projects. One of the critical stakeholders is the Client Project Manager (CPM) whom is responsible for ensuring the client interests are well preserve. CPM needs to have knowledge on project management and all the technical skills required to manage the project. Although, they do not perform the actual work of the project, yet CPM needs the same technical skill level as the people doing the work. This paper reports the first stage of the study which is to identify the problem in relation to the CPM technical competency in managing Malaysian public projects. Literature analysis and interviews have been done with several policy makers and experience professionals who have been involved in public projects for more than ten years. The evidence did indicate the CPM is not competent in managing public projects. CPM that are being appointed come from various education backgrounds and CPM has different knowledge and understanding regarding on how to manage projects. Furthermore, there is no standard technical competency model establish for the CPM especially for the use of public CPM. To add to the matter, the quality and standard of the training provided by the responsible ministry are still not up to the industry needs. This work aims to develop the technical competency model for the usage of the public CPM in managing projects. Recognition of these problems will be the basis to build up the professionalism of the public CPM in managing public projects in Malaysia.