Improving Transport Project Appraisals
In the Islamic Countries
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evidence. Besides the core scenario, High and Low Growth scenarios that will test the impact on
the schemes of high and low background growth, are used.
Transport projects are initially classified as follows on the basis of their BCRs;
 Poor Value for Money if the BCR is less than 1.0
 Low Value for Money if the BCR is between 1.0 and 1.5
 Medium Value for Money if the BCR is between 1.5 and 2.0
 High Value for Money if the BCR is between 2.0 and 4.0
 Very high Value for Money if the BCR is above 4.0
A project can be shifted to a lower or higher Value for Money category, if the decision-maker
believes that the evidence from the appraisal on the impacts that are omitted from the BCR is of
sufficient importance. In practice, almost all projects selected have High Value for Money or Very
high Value for Money. Ministers are advised by the Permanent Secretary that, should they wish
to approve a project which is classified as in a lower category of Value for Money, the Permanent
Secretary will seek a formal written direction from the minister to proceed with the scheme. The
Accounting Officer is encouraged to discuss the matter with Treasury and to take steps to inform
the Public Accounts Committee.
2.2.7 Follow-up and learning
In the Green book the following is stated related to follow-up and learning:
Monitoring and evaluation of all proposals should be planned, costed and provided for as an
integral part of the proposed intervention under consideration. This helps ensure that they will
be systematically carried out. Taken together monitoring and evaluation can identify what
lessons can be learned to inform the design and delivery of future interventions.
It is recommended to use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to gather
evidence and understand different aspects of an intervention’s operation. Surveys, interviews
and focus groups may be needed to understand the views of a wide range of stakeholders,
evaluation questions should reflect immediate needs to manage and assess the success of an
intervention.
The UK POPE (Post Opening Post Evaluation) scheme has been in place since 2002, and is
mandatory for all major trunk road investments30. There are differing levels of evaluation
depending on the size of the project. POPE major schemes cover road investments exceeding
£10 million, and occur at 1-, and 5-year intervals. Evaluations for large (between £1–10 million)
and small (between £25K–1 million) road investments fall under the rubric of the POPE Local
Network Management Schemes (LNMS), which are carried out once, one year after the project
has been completed (Highways Agency, 2012). The essential purpose of the POPE schemes is to
“identify the extent to which the expected impacts of individual highway improvement schemes
have materialised and to identify lessons learnt that can then be used to help inform thinking on
current and future national appraisal methods”. (Highways Agency, 2011, p. 10). Additionally,
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