2. EXTERNAL MONITORING

2.1 Objectives

(12) All over the world, and in developing countries in particular, heavy monetory restrictions are placed on research activities: the time that research was carried out for the mere satisfaction of human curiosity is over. Still fundamental research is performed, but less and less in private or government institutes: it becomes the speciality of universities, and even those request more and more financial participation of parties (often societies or companies) that are interested in the results.

(13) FRI was established to conduct “applied research”: i.e. investigations that lead to either direct applicability of new methodologies, or to production of basic data required for development of such new methodologies.

The further development of FRI requires substantial public resources for its personnel costs, operation and maintenance, administration, and for technical inputs to its core research programme. The allocation of public resources is to be assessed against the potential benefits. In Bangladesh, the principle for accountability for public resources allocations for research purposes is well established.

The Government has delegated the responsibility for the development and programme involvement to the Board of Governors of FRI, a body in which policy matters and technical knowledge meet.

(14) The task of the Board of Governors of FRI with respect to monitoring of the research programme reflects the objectives of any form of “external monitoring”, namely:

1. Determination whether the ongoing research is economically justified (Evaluation of costs versus outputs of ongoing research projects);
2. Determination whether the research programme reflects the national needs (Evaluation of priority of new research projects versus ongoing ones);
3. Determination whether research efforts are not doubled (Evaluation of the set of research projects of an institute versus projects carried out elsewhere).

The Board of Governors of FRI is expected to carry out its monitoring of FRI research on a regular basis, next to its monitoring of other FRI matters, like management, budgeting and accounting, personnel policies, and maintenance and/or replenishment of facilities.

2.2 Procedures

(15) FRI's Board of Governors can not be expected to carry out the regular research monitoring itself: a thorough analysis of progress, of priorities, and of co-ordination with research elsewhere takes more time than the members of this high-powered body can afford themselves. Therefore it is suggested to apply the same procedure as is used elsewhere: the Board delegates the external monitoring to either a national consultants firm, or a reputable internationally recognized research management specialist, through the appropriate recruitment procedure in Bangladesh. The use of an outside body for external monitoring of a governmental or autonomous institute has two distinct advantages:

• the recommendations will be independent;
• the monitoring can be carried out in a set time period, resulting in minimum disruption of the work at FRI.

(16) The members of the consultants' monitoring team will have to be sufficient experienced and senior to be able to quickly analyze research projects, and in order to have easy access to various government bodies, universities and other institutions. The consultants firm will most probably proceed to temporary recruitment of retired scientists and/or retired high level civil servants.

(17) The monitoring team does not necessary have to consist of (exclusively) fisheries specialists, since the type of questions they will have to answer will be of a rather general nature and common for any research project. It would be advisable, however, to include at least one, but preferably two fisheries experts in the team, who will be able to assess whether new research will be feasible, and who will also be able to judge the implications for the “customers” of FRI research programmes. After all, the effectiveness of research projects will always depend on the actual adoption of the research findings by the clients, i.e. the people of Bangladesh involved in the fisheries sector. Research projects that do not meet this basic condition of cost-effectiveness should be defered.

Ideally, the monitoring team for FRI should consist of one senior general scientist with extensive experience in the fisheries field (teamleader), one fisheries expert, and one economist.

(18) The consultants team will lay down its findings in a final report to the Board of Governors. The report will not only have to present a clear picture of the status of each research programme (= set of projects) of FRI, but it should also provide recommendations regarding the continuation/cessation of projects, the increase/ decrease of efforts in distinct areas of research, and co-operation.

The status of each research programme does not have to be described in technical terms: that will be taken care of by FRI in its annual reporting. In the context of external monitoring it is of importance to show:

• whether the progress and/or results that were originally foreseen have been reached and/or can still be expected on time;
• whether inputs (facilities, materials, manpower, money) are within the budgeted order of magnitude;
• whether the main research questions still reflect the main problems in practice;
• whether optimum co-ordination and co-operation with related research at FRI and elsewhere is reached;
• whether a programme's objectives are still in concordance with those of the country's development plans.

In dependance of the governments policy towards in-country research at the time of external monitoring, and also in dependance of availing pressure on research resources, the consultants team will have to prepare a set of monitoring criteria during the first days of its assignment. These criteria will be approved by the Board before the actual field work of the team starts.

The Board might ask a reaction on the final report from the Director FRI, unless the Director has already declared that he fully agrees with the recommendations provided. When there are differences of opinion, the Board might organize a short hearing, in which a “third opinion” can be invited. Thereafter the Board decides.

(19) It can easily be understood, that a procedure as described above should take place regularly, but not too frequently: research implementation needs time and projects should be allowed to prove their soundness.

An external monitoring once every two to three years can be expected to provide adequate guarantees for the cost-effectiveness of FRI, as well as for its presence on the right tracks.

(20) When FRI is in full operation (including the brackishwater and marine stations), a three-man monitoring team will need two months (9 weeks) for the whole procedure. A break-down of this time period is presented in Table 1.

Table 1 - Time schedule for external monitoring of FRI, by a team of three (national) consultants

* Dependent on the composition of the monitoring team, this may not be needed. In that case the job can be done in 8 weeks.