< Back
The National Recovery and Resilience Plan
(PNRR)
PNRR is currently the subject that should interest any Romanian, any organization (public or private), any project manager, practically anyone, because this program can produce social, economic, political, ecological and legislative changes that to have a major impact on the lives of all Romanians, because almost 30 billion euros, European money, can reach our country. This money will be used for the modernization of roads, schools and hospitals, for the digitization of public and local administration, but also to produce green energy. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) is structured on two major lines of action, reforms and investments, which brings Romania the perspective of modernization and the profound changes expected by civil society, the business environment and the public sector in Romania. The PNRR could be Romania's chance to recover (being about recovery and resilience) and use that resource to build hospitals, schools or roads.
Since PNRR is a program, before presenting its data (data that are already public and well-known), I will present what a program is, how it works and what effects it can have.
A program is defined as related projects, subsidiary programs and program activities managed in a coordinated manner to achieve benefits not available by managing them individually. In the case of the PNRR, several economic and social sectors in Romania were targeted, for which budget allocations totaling 29.2 billion euros would be made.
The Ministry of Investments and European Projects is an integrating ministry, it must make plans with each ministry and then it must integrate these plans on the six directions approved in the European Parliament (EP). It should be known that the total budget of 29.2 billion euros has two components, one fully non-refundable (in the amount of 13 billion euros) and one refundable (which represents a loan negotiated by the EU, with much lower interest rates than Romania would have been able to obtain ).
The management of projects, subsidiary programs and activities of a program improves the delivery of benefits by ensuring that the strategies and execution plans of the program components are specifically adapted to the results of the components, or to changes in the direction or strategy developed. Programs are conducted primarily to provide benefits to funders or constituent organizations. Programs can provide benefits, for example, by enhancing current capabilities, facilitating change, creating or maintaining assets, offering new products and services, or developing new opportunities providing utility to the organization and the program's intended beneficiaries or stakeholders. Concretely, PNRR targets the following components:
Programs deliver their intended benefits primarily through components such as projects and subsidiary programs that are tracked to produce outputs and outcomes. The components of a program are linked to complementary objectives through their pursuit, each contributing to the delivery of benefits. That is why knowing and using project management and project management methodologies is already a necessity. Project managers can understand the requirements and constraints of projects and programs, being an interface with program and portfolio managers. That is precisely why the mayors and local authorities must, immediately after the approval of the plan by the European Commission, begin to prepare and identify those projects that meet the required conditions. It is necessary to mobilize all state institutions, in an unprecedented administrative effort on a national scale.
The PNRR rule, explained even by Cristian GHINEA - the minister of investments and European projects - in an interview, is that every project that does not precisely respect the deadlines can block all the money. "If some milestones in a component are blocked, not only that component is blocked. All PNRR is blocked. In the next 5 and a half years, this country, regardless of who will be led, will have a reform tracking mechanism connected to money. And if one ministry doesn't do its job, money is blocked for all other ministries and companies."
This is because the main difference between projects and programs is based on the recognition within programs that benefit delivery strategies may require adaptive optimization as component outcomes are individually achieved. The results delivered by the components of a program contribute to the delivery of the intended benefits of the program and, if necessary, to the refinement of the strategy of the program and its components. In PNRR, the major lines of action (investments and reforms) cannot function without the others in the long term, because the aim is to stimulate economic prosperity in a sustainable way through well-paid jobs for Romanians. So, if a project is missed in Transport, the money for Education is also blocked (or vice versa)!
The European Commission (EC) will make an assessment together with the Romanian government once every 6 months, and if the assumed milestones have been put into practice, a new installment of money will be released. The mechanism is different from the one we were used to: after it lets go of the mechanism, the CE no longer has control: you set the benchmarks, you touch them, the CE turns green, the money comes; if not, NO!
The main value of managing this initiative as a program is based on awareness of the willingness of the program manager to adapt strategies to optimize the delivery of benefits. As a consequence, a program's potential need to optimize the deliverables of its component results and its potential need to modify its strategy or plans and program components can be pursued in an iterative and non-sequential manner. In a program, the iterative tracking of components is expected to produce a flow of outputs and outcomes that contribute to benefits. Program benefits may be realized gradually throughout the duration of the program or may be realized at or after completion of the program.
But implementation will be complicated. We have to measure a thousand times what is put into reforms and investments because the risks are very high, especially in the area of road infrastructure for which there was a huge struggle to be introduced in the PNRR and which, in the end, gained a weight important (7.6 billion euros). In order to better understand the development process, let's analyze the figure below, which schematically shows the life cycle of a program.
Each of the components can bring incremental benefits as they are completed. The results of the components could trigger the initiation of new projects to further improve processes, satisfaction and performance. However, the program is complete when all projects and subsidiary programs necessary to improve economic action have achieved their planned benefits.
In Romania, there is already a tradition of delays for various reasons: the auction, the contractor, the subcontractor, the designer, expropriation, lost, stolen, etc. I don't remember any project completed by the set deadline, and if the planned milestones are not reached at each monitoring done by the EC once every 6 months, the entire financing stops.
Program management is defined as the application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve program objectives and to achieve benefits and control not available through individual management of program components. Program management involves the alignment of program components to ensure that program objectives are achieved and program benefits are optimally delivered, thereby focusing on the coordinated and effective delivery of benefits derived from the exercise of a group of projects and other programs whose outputs are linked together . This means that an unprecedented interministerial cooperation is needed.
In this context, the Romanian government engages through PNRR program management to improve the abilities to deliver benefits in the form of social or societal value (for example, improving health, safety or security...etc.). Program management enables organizations to more effectively pursue their strategic objectives through coordinated tracking of projects, subsidiary programs, and other program-related activities. Program management aims to optimize project management related to components and programs to improve the generation of economic value.
With an emphasis on benefit realization and multiple components working together to produce the intended results, the complexity and duration of program demands the program manager considers is a broad, collective view of all program components to thoroughly understand the progress that the contributions of the component parts are also managed successfully. This distinguishes and differentiates program management and project management approaches, and explains the need for both within a program. Program benefits management is the performance area that defines, creates, maximizes and delivers the benefits provided by the program.
Program benefits management encompasses a number of elements that are critical to program success. In the case of PNRR, the benefits are aligned with other components of the EU, EP and EC. Program benefits management includes processes for clarifying the planned benefits of the program and expected results, and also includes processes for monitoring the program's ability to deliver benefits and results, and that is why the CE will do an evaluation of the PNRR once every 6 months.
PNRR clients and beneficiaries are in operational or functional areas, specific groups of interested parties, certain economic sectors, certain industries, certain demographic categories and the general population. Programs and their components deliver results that deliver benefits that support strategic goals and objectives. It is important that as incremental benefits occur, the intended beneficiaries are prepared for the resulting change and are able to sustain the incremental benefits through the completion of the program and beyond because after the program ends, the benefits may continue to be realized.
Also, program benefits management will need to ensure that the benefits provided by the investment in the program can be sustained after the program ends. Throughout the program delivery phase program components are planned, developed, integrated and managed to facilitate the delivery of the planned benefits. During the benefits delivery phase of the program, the benefits analysis and planning activities, along with the benefits delivery activities, can be done iteratively, especially when corrective actions are needed to achieve the program benefits, so the benefits of the program will be monitored and managed because the benefits must be considered an essential part of the program results.
We all need to understand that program benefits management requires continuous interaction with other performance areas throughout the program. Interactions are cyclical and,