Overcoming the ‘White Elephant’ Syndrome in Big and Iconic Projects in the Public and Private Sectors

Analysis of the Impact of Rework on Public and Private Projects in Nigeria

“…A public project is any project that is funded by a government and is meant to be owned or operated by that government. Public projects are government owned; federal, state or local government (Prasser, 2015). Most public projects relate to work a government does to fulfill a public purpose.…”

“…Some of the major characteristics of public projects is that there is a clear line of accountability and access to expertise which is usually not available in the private projects and development risk is minimized. Public project also has better compliance with environmental regulation as it is owned by government (Prasser, 2015). In this type of project, there is right to terminate contract and to apportion penalties for poor performance and the fear of these help to improve cost effectiveness and with flexible concession period (Johnson et al, 2013).…”

EU-financed peripheral large-scale infrastructure projects and the White Elephant syndrome: The example of Rail Baltica

“…Crucially, the projects that tend to become White Elephants require considerable post-completion maintenance and support and other lasting valuable resources that could be used elsewhere. Such projects, because of their status, size, and complexity too often disrupt effective project manage-Acta Oeconomica 69 ( 2019) ment practices in their original scoping, assessment and implementation, and fail to have clear purposes or functions (Prasser 2007). Related studies, such as the one carried out by Mangan -Dyreson (2010) and Flyvberg ( 2007) point out the scale of budget overrun and significant financial surcharges beyond the originally planned costs, as the reason to use the symbol of White Elephant.…”

“…In the current study "the white elephant" metaphor refers to a large infrastructural investment (often in the form of partial gift from central authority) whose cost of maintenance is not in line with its value. It is often approved for political or symbolic reasons and it cannot be sold in normal circumstances (Girginov 2010;Papanikolaou 2013;Prasser 2007).…”

The Effective Use of National Recovery and Resilience Plan Funding: A Methodological Approach for the Optimal Assessment of the Initiative Costs

“…Furthermore, the cost assessments can orient the intervention implementation modalities, allowing one to select those that are consistent with the established spending limits and to reject the design solutions that are not convenient as too expensive (the so-called "white elephant" investments) [15][16][17].…”