Costs Are Understated

Projects coming down from the top are approved first, and the cost estimates are inflated to make sure that enough money is budgeted. And with projects coming up from the bottom, costs are understated to give the projects a better chance of being approved.  Later on, the costs go up -- the people involved say that they "forgot this, forgot that."

-- Arthur Y. Chen, Taiwanese politician, Minister of Public Construction Commission (PCC) 1995 - 1996, cited in "Constructive Criticism" on Taiwan Today, 1 May 1996