Why governments keep screwing up major infrastructure projects

Philip Cross, a fellow with Canada's  Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a recent  former Chief Economic Analyst at Statistics Canada, explains - "Why governments keep screwing up major infrastructure projects" in his latest June 28th, 2019, National Post article at: https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/philip-cross-why-governments-keep-screwing-up-major-infrastructure-projects.

His article is crammed with pithy and accurate reasons why this pretty much invariably happens in all jurisdictions, whether federally, provincially or in urban situations.  Read his article for details of the studies reported in a  2003 book Megaprojects and Risk by Bent Flyvbjerg, Nils Bruzelius and Werner Rothengatte with evidence from the World Bank and many others.

Instead of outlining his specific comments (you can read the article), instead, I summarize his comments which allude to his sources showing why governments rarely get maega-projects done in time and within cost estimates:

1.  Dishonesty on the parts of government politicians, managers and planners [study authors say “deception and lying” are common tactics to get projects approved].

2.  More dishonesty and lying by politicians [Though no megaproject ever proceeds smoothly, planners use 'Everything Goes According to Plan' assumptions because it lowers the initial cost estimates presented to the public].

3.  Gross incompetence by politicians and bureaucratic public management [characterized by “strikingly poor performance in terms of economy, environment and public support.” Costs are almost always underestimated, and demand for most public projects overestimated].

4.  More dishonesty and gross incompetence [The same studies describe the planning process as “seriously flawed” and “a grave embarrassment,” with the occasional accusation of “lying” thrown in for good measure. Nor is there much evidence governments learn from past mistakes].

5.  More gross incompetence and dishonesty [Governments don’t hold contractors accountable for cost overruns. Nor in turn are they themselves held accountable for overly optimistic demand forecasts. Most projects take so long that incumbent politicians are not around to take responsibility for misleading the public].

As shown, all public projects suffer from a lack of accountability.

Recap:  Dishonesty and Incompetence.  Didn't we know that already?  I guess voters never pay attention, do they?