A viable infrastructure delivery systems model for achieving socio-economic benefits in the Nigerian oil and gas industry

In apparent realisation of the place of procurement in driving the implementation of socio-economic policies, successive governments across the globe are increasingly demanding more from suppliers as it pertains to the delivery of socio-economic benefits. This has resulted in a significant shift in what constitutes success in the respective projects which they commission; from factors related to the ‘iron triangle’ to contributions of the project to the growth of the local economy. Policies such as the Social Value Act, and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICDA) in the United Kingdom and Nigeria respectively readily come to mind. Judging by the plethora of literature bemoaning the prevailing high poverty and unemployment rates in developing and resource-rich countries such as Nigeria; it would appear that the implementation of such policies has failed to deliver the expected outcomes. This opinion is affirmed by several studies which point to the possibility of implementation failure in such countries. Surprisingly, none of these studies has made any attempt to explore the manner in which implementation is organised and governed. Obviously, the seeming absence of a veritable platform for implementation analysis constitutes an immense challenge to effective analysis. As a result of this, previous investigators appear to have failed to properly tackle this imbroglio from a holistic and systemic perspective. To bridge this gap, this qualitative study embarked upon an evaluation of the implementation process using the NOGICD Act as an exemplar. The failure of the nation’s economic sectors to achieve sufficient backward linkage with the oil and gas industry, as evidenced by the reported failure of local suppliers to gain entry into the supply chains of major infrastructure projects contributed to this choice. The Viable Systems and Temporary Multi-Organisations theoretical lenses were applied in the conceptualisation of the inherent complex interorganisational relationships thus resulting in the development of a Viable Infrastructure Delivery Systems Model (VIDM); a model premised on systemic and cybernetic principles. The VIDM was then applied in conceptualising and evaluating the extant interorganisational relationships within selected infrastructure delivery system case studies in Nigeria and the United Kingdom depicting the multi-case study nature of the study. A mixture of unstructured, semi-structured, and structured interviews were employed at various stages of the study. Also, policy and publicly available contract documents were explored. Subsequently, the emergent data was qualitatively analysed using pre-set themes, with NVivo software. The findings obtained were used to test various propositions on a within-case and cross-case basis. It was observed that the VIDM was better positioned to conceptualise and evaluate the various interorganisational interactions within infrastructure delivery systems and how they influence implementation success. Furthermore, the application of the VIDM within the selected cases enabled the discovery of various issues within the IDS capable of undermining successful implementation such as non-alignment of goals within the IDS, excessive government interference, lack of appropriate criteria for measurement of benefits and cognition-related issues. It is expected that the VIDM would be used by implementation advisors for conceptualising and evaluating interorganisational relationships during policy or strategy implementation cycles and/or for (re)designing implementation processes for viability within the Nigerian oil and gas industry.