WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.520 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I have to admit, 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:06.360 when I first saw the title of the resource deck 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:08.660 we're covering today, I was a little confused. 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:11.060 Yeah, it's a bit of a curveball. Right, because 00:00:11.060 --> 00:00:14.660 it's called Ghost Projects. Yeah. And, well, 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:17.320 I assumed we were pivoting to true crime or maybe 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:20.539 a supernatural thriller, like a haunted house 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:22.260 special or something you'd find on a conspiracy 00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:24.519 forum at three in the morning. I can definitely 00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:26.160 see why you'd think that. It sounds inherently 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.129 spooky. It does. But after reading through these 00:00:29.129 --> 00:00:31.920 reports, specifically the data from the American 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.060 Journal of Management Practice and the fieldwork 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:36.780 from the Philippines, I realized this is actually 00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:39.320 much more terrifying than a ghost story. It really 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:41.719 is. I mean, a haunted house might scare you for 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:44.439 a night, but a ghost project can bankrupt a community 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:47.979 for a generation. And unlike a ghost story, the 00:00:47.979 --> 00:00:50.320 villains here aren't hiding in the shadows. No, 00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:52.399 they're not. They're usually standing on a podium, 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.719 cutting a ribbon. That's the image that really 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.920 stuck with me. The idea of a grand ribbon -cutting 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:02.399 ceremony for... For literally nothing, air, an 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:05.140 empty field. But let's ground this for everyone 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:07.019 listening. We aren't talking about spiritual 00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:09.140 manifestations. Right. We are talking about a 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:12.359 very specific, incredibly expensive phenomenon 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:16.000 in global infrastructure. Exactly. To put a rigid 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.719 definition on it based on our sources, a ghost 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.560 project is a development or infrastructure initiative. 00:01:22.989 --> 00:01:26.709 A bridge, a dam, a hospital that has been officially 00:01:26.709 --> 00:01:28.730 approved. It's been announced to the public. 00:01:28.969 --> 00:01:31.409 And crucially, the funding has been allocated 00:01:31.409 --> 00:01:34.750 and often released. Physically. Physically, it 00:01:34.750 --> 00:01:36.709 either was never completed, was substantially 00:01:36.709 --> 00:01:39.930 delayed, or in the absolute most extreme cases, 00:01:39.989 --> 00:01:43.090 exists only in plans and documents. There is 00:01:43.090 --> 00:01:45.409 little to no physical implementation. See, that's 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:47.069 the part that I struggled to wrap my head around 00:01:47.069 --> 00:01:49.510 initially. Abandoned projects, I get. You run 00:01:49.510 --> 00:01:51.890 out of money, you stop building. We've all seen 00:01:51.890 --> 00:01:53.810 a half -finished condo building or a stalled 00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:56.030 highway. Sure, those are common. But the sources 00:01:56.030 --> 00:01:59.049 describe scenarios where the paperwork says the 00:01:59.049 --> 00:02:00.930 project is finished, the money is completely 00:02:00.930 --> 00:02:03.430 gone, and the site itself is just a muddy field. 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:06.530 How is that functionally possible in the modern 00:02:06.530 --> 00:02:09.310 age? I mean, you can't hide a missing bridge 00:02:09.310 --> 00:02:11.870 from Google Earth. You can't hide it from a satellite, 00:02:12.009 --> 00:02:13.389 no, but you can hide it from the bureaucracy. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:16.319 And that's the key here. This isn't usually a 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:18.500 case of someone just robbing a bank and running 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:21.659 away in the dead of night. It's a highly complex 00:02:21.659 --> 00:02:25.340 ecosystem of fraud. An ecosystem. Yes. And it 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:28.689 usually starts. way before the first shovel even 00:02:28.689 --> 00:02:31.490 hits the ground. It fits into a broader family 00:02:31.490 --> 00:02:33.870 of fraudulent practices that our sources mention, 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:36.409 things like ghost employees, where salaries are 00:02:36.409 --> 00:02:38.909 paid to workers who don't exist, or ghost expenses. 00:02:39.389 --> 00:02:42.389 It's a systemic issue of manufacturing a paper 00:02:42.389 --> 00:02:45.409 reality that directly contradicts physical reality. 00:02:45.710 --> 00:02:47.729 Okay, so let's walk through that ecosystem. You're 00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:49.409 talking about the feasibility study phase, right? 00:02:49.550 --> 00:02:52.370 I was reading about this. It seems like the corruption 00:02:52.370 --> 00:02:54.719 starts by basically... Cooking the books on whether 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:57.560 the project is even possible or necessary. Precisely. 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:00.659 In a healthy system, a feasibility study tells 00:03:00.659 --> 00:03:03.740 you if a dam will actually hold water or if a 00:03:03.740 --> 00:03:06.139 new road will legitimately reduce traffic. It's 00:03:06.139 --> 00:03:08.719 the groundwork. Right. But in the ghost ecosystem, 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:12.520 that study is often faked. They manufacture data 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:14.580 to make a project look incredibly profitable 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:17.620 or urgently necessary just to get the massive 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:20.039 budget approved. And once that green light is 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:23.000 on. the money starts flowing. And this is where 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.960 the mobilization fee comes in. This was the specific 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:28.379 mechanism that just blew my mind. It's brazen. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:31.000 It is. The contractor gets an upfront payment. 00:03:31.469 --> 00:03:34.009 Literally just to show up. Usually around 15 00:03:34.009 --> 00:03:36.550 percent of the total project cost. Now, in a 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:39.469 legitimate project, that money buys raw materials 00:03:39.469 --> 00:03:41.530 and physically moves heavy equipment to the site. 00:03:41.610 --> 00:03:43.949 It makes sense. Right. You need capital to start 00:03:43.949 --> 00:03:46.490 building. But in a ghost project scheme, that 00:03:46.490 --> 00:03:48.930 15 percent is the heist. The contractor takes 00:03:48.930 --> 00:03:51.610 the mobilization fee, maybe puts up a cheap chain 00:03:51.610 --> 00:03:54.389 link fence or digs a single hole to make it look 00:03:54.389 --> 00:03:57.090 active to anyone driving by. And then they vanish. 00:03:57.729 --> 00:04:00.169 The company dissolves or the funds are laundered. 00:04:01.799 --> 00:04:04.699 So they literally take the startup cash and run. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:08.419 And because the project was based on a fake feasibility 00:04:08.419 --> 00:04:11.199 study anyway, nobody was really expecting it 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:13.319 to work in the first place. Exactly. The utility 00:04:13.319 --> 00:04:16.000 of the project was never the goal. The budget 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.519 extraction was the goal. We should probably distinguish 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:20.399 this from other types of bad infrastructure, 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:22.639 though. Because as I was reading, I kept thinking 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:25.139 of the term white elephant. People use that a 00:04:25.139 --> 00:04:27.860 lot for bad projects. But that's different, isn't 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:30.310 it? Very different. And the distinction really 00:04:30.310 --> 00:04:33.449 matters. A white elephant is a project that actually 00:04:33.449 --> 00:04:36.350 is built. It's physically finished. You can walk 00:04:36.350 --> 00:04:38.889 through its doors. But it's just useless. Right. 00:04:38.970 --> 00:04:41.949 Maybe it's a massive multi -million dollar airport 00:04:41.949 --> 00:04:44.290 in a city that gets zero commercial flights. 00:04:44.449 --> 00:04:47.829 Or an Olympic stadium that nobody ever uses again. 00:04:47.949 --> 00:04:50.290 It burns money on maintenance. It's a drain. 00:04:50.629 --> 00:04:53.790 But... A ghost project is arguably worse because 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:55.709 you spent the capital, but you have absolutely 00:04:55.709 --> 00:04:58.110 zero asset to show for it. You don't even have 00:04:58.110 --> 00:05:00.829 a useless building. You have a void. Which brings 00:05:00.829 --> 00:05:03.129 us to the most fascinating and frankly bizarre 00:05:03.129 --> 00:05:06.170 part of the research packet. The article from 00:05:06.170 --> 00:05:08.810 Third World Quarterly. Oh, the theoretical angle. 00:05:08.970 --> 00:05:12.589 Yes. The authors use this term Gothic Marxism, 00:05:12.589 --> 00:05:15.670 and they talk about transgressive horror. I love 00:05:15.670 --> 00:05:17.509 that you brought this up. It sounds incredibly 00:05:17.509 --> 00:05:20.529 academic on the surface, but it's... Actually, 00:05:20.550 --> 00:05:23.910 the most emotionally resonant part of the research, 00:05:24.029 --> 00:05:26.189 in my opinion. It felt like they were analyzing 00:05:26.189 --> 00:05:30.589 a Dracula novel, not a road network. They described 00:05:30.589 --> 00:05:33.629 these projects as a time for monsters. And at 00:05:33.629 --> 00:05:36.009 first I was like, what are we talking about here? 00:05:36.170 --> 00:05:38.680 It's a striking phrase. But as I read it. I started 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:40.800 to really understand what they meant. They aren't 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:43.560 talking about literal vampires or werewolves. 00:05:43.579 --> 00:05:45.699 They're talking about the past haunting the present. 00:05:45.899 --> 00:05:48.959 Yes. It's the idea that these abandoned structures, 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:51.720 these concrete skeletons resting in the jungle 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:53.819 or just sitting on the edge of a city, are not 00:05:53.819 --> 00:05:56.160 just neutral objects. They are active sores on 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.500 the landscape. Gothic literature usually involves 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.439 a dark, hidden past that refuses to stay buried. 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:03.480 Exactly. The sins of the father and all that. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:05.860 Right. So when you see a ghost project, you are 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:12.810 looking at a physical unavoidable... that's a 00:06:12.810 --> 00:06:15.250 really powerful way to put it it's not just an 00:06:15.250 --> 00:06:17.410 accounting error it's not just oh they wasted 00:06:17.410 --> 00:06:20.110 some tax money it's a ruin of a future that never 00:06:20.110 --> 00:06:23.250 actually happened and the horror part the transgressive 00:06:23.250 --> 00:06:25.430 horror comes from the fact that these structures 00:06:25.430 --> 00:06:28.050 can actually kill you That is the monster aspect 00:06:28.050 --> 00:06:30.649 they're talking about. Think about an abandoned 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:34.069 half dug construction site for a massive flood 00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:37.050 control system. It's not just an ugly eyesore. 00:06:37.189 --> 00:06:39.589 It's dangerous. It's incredibly dangerous. It 00:06:39.589 --> 00:06:41.850 becomes a stagnant breeding ground for mosquitoes, 00:06:41.949 --> 00:06:45.250 which brings dengue fever or malaria to the surrounding 00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:48.829 neighborhoods. Or it's a deep, unmarked excavation 00:06:48.829 --> 00:06:51.529 pit that fills with rainwater where local children 00:06:51.529 --> 00:06:54.350 can drown. Oh, wow. The very infrastructure that 00:06:54.350 --> 00:06:57.040 was funded and promised to save. lives becomes 00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:59.819 a literal hazard that takes them. It reminds 00:06:59.819 --> 00:07:02.339 me of the concept of the uncanny valley in robotics, 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:04.759 you know, where something looks almost human, 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:07.980 but not quite. And it naturally revolts us. These 00:07:07.980 --> 00:07:10.399 projects are like the uncanny valley of civic 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:12.920 development. They mimic the look of progress, 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:15.540 but they're actually just decay. And that decay 00:07:15.540 --> 00:07:18.480 has a profound psychological toll on the people 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:21.800 living near it. The authors of that paper argue 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:24.920 that living around ghost projects creates a very 00:07:24.920 --> 00:07:28.300 specific very deep kind of cynicism I can imagine 00:07:28.300 --> 00:07:30.980 if you wake up every single day and look out 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:33.180 your window to see the skeletal remains of a 00:07:33.180 --> 00:07:35.939 hospital that was never finished You don't just 00:07:35.939 --> 00:07:39.000 lose faith in the specific mayor who signed the 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.199 contract. You lose faith in the entire concept 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:44.519 of governance. You start to believe that progress 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:47.360 itself is a lie. Exactly. It completely erodes 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:50.620 civic trust. That cynicism is arguably more damaging 00:07:50.620 --> 00:07:53.740 long term than the lost cash. But speaking of 00:07:53.740 --> 00:07:55.459 the cash, we really have to talk about the scale 00:07:55.459 --> 00:07:57.439 of this. We're not talking about a few thousand 00:07:57.439 --> 00:07:59.819 dollars missing for a park bench. No, the numbers 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:01.860 are astronomical. The data coming out of the 00:08:01.860 --> 00:08:04.480 Philippines, which serves as the primary case. 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:08.439 in our source material is just... The Philippines 00:08:08.439 --> 00:08:11.360 gives us the clearest, most recent data set right 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.620 now, largely because the Commission on Audit 00:08:13.620 --> 00:08:15.699 there has been aggressively investigating this 00:08:15.699 --> 00:08:18.600 lately. We are looking at official reports covering 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:22.939 the years 2023 to 2025. And the estimates for 00:08:22.939 --> 00:08:25.339 economic losses just regarding flood control 00:08:25.339 --> 00:08:29.360 projects alone are between 42 .3 billion and 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:33.279 118 .5 billion Philippine pesos. Just to put 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:34.720 that in perspective for you, if you're listening 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:37.460 globally, we are talking about. Roughly $750 00:08:37.460 --> 00:08:40.639 million to over $2 billion U .S. dollars. Just 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:44.480 vanishing. And the context here is vital. We 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:46.200 aren't talking about a luxury tourist resort 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:48.139 that didn't get built. No. We're talking about 00:08:48.139 --> 00:08:51.100 flood control in a country that gets hit by roughly 00:08:51.100 --> 00:08:53.860 20 typhoons every single year. This is exactly 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:56.240 where that gothic horror theory becomes real 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.830 life. The Department of Public Works and Highways, 00:08:58.889 --> 00:09:02.269 or DPWH, actually confirmed ghost flood control 00:09:02.269 --> 00:09:05.629 projects in Bulacan, specifically in municipalities 00:09:05.629 --> 00:09:08.730 like Columpet, Malolos, and Hagonoy. And for 00:09:08.730 --> 00:09:10.190 those who don't know the geography there, what 00:09:10.190 --> 00:09:12.529 does that mean? Bulacan is a province just north 00:09:12.529 --> 00:09:15.110 of the capital, Manila. Geographically, it's 00:09:15.110 --> 00:09:17.669 essentially a massive catch basin for water coming 00:09:17.669 --> 00:09:19.769 down from the surrounding mountain ranges. If 00:09:19.769 --> 00:09:21.830 you don't have functional levees, dikes, and 00:09:21.830 --> 00:09:24.350 pumping stations there, entire towns go underwater. 00:09:25.180 --> 00:09:28.159 So when a politician or contractor in Bullocken 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:31.000 signs off on a ghost dike, takes the money and 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.100 builds nothing, they are effectively signing 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:36.539 a warrant for that town to flood. Yes. The paper 00:09:36.539 --> 00:09:38.960 reality sitting in a filing cabinet says the 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:41.799 town is protected. The physical reality on the 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:43.840 ground says the town is completely vulnerable. 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:47.899 And when the next super typhoon hits, the floodwaters 00:09:47.899 --> 00:09:50.419 do not care about the paperwork. That is just 00:09:50.419 --> 00:09:52.769 brutal. There was also a report mentioned in 00:09:52.769 --> 00:09:55.769 the sources from journalist Iris Gonzalez. She 00:09:55.769 --> 00:09:58.049 documented this exact same phenomenon happening, 00:09:58.169 --> 00:10:00.629 but with different types of infrastructure. Things 00:10:00.629 --> 00:10:03.110 like schools and farm -to -market roads in places 00:10:03.110 --> 00:10:05.730 like Kalinga and Lanao del Sur. Lanao del Sur 00:10:05.730 --> 00:10:08.190 is a really heartbreaking example of this. This 00:10:08.190 --> 00:10:10.250 is an area in the southern Philippines that has 00:10:10.250 --> 00:10:13.389 historically seen a lot of conflict and deep 00:10:13.389 --> 00:10:15.669 poverty. In a place like that, a farm -to -market 00:10:15.669 --> 00:10:18.470 road isn't a luxury. It's a lifeline. Exactly. 00:10:18.730 --> 00:10:22.190 It's the literal difference between a local farmer 00:10:22.190 --> 00:10:24.970 being able to sell their crops in the city or 00:10:24.970 --> 00:10:27.450 having to let them rot in the field. When that 00:10:27.450 --> 00:10:30.610 road ends up being a ghost project, you are actively 00:10:30.610 --> 00:10:33.690 keeping that entire community trapped in poverty. 00:10:33.870 --> 00:10:36.230 You are structurally stealing their ability to 00:10:36.230 --> 00:10:38.970 participate in the broader economy. Why does 00:10:38.970 --> 00:10:40.830 this keep happening, though? I mean, obviously, 00:10:40.929 --> 00:10:42.809 greed is the baseline answer. People want to 00:10:42.809 --> 00:10:45.529 steal money. But the American Journal of Management 00:10:45.529 --> 00:10:49.259 Practice study. points to a complex mix of causes. 00:10:49.580 --> 00:10:52.279 Weak oversight is one, obviously, approving projects 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:55.279 without those real feasibility studies. Right. 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:57.399 But we touched on the political cycle earlier, 00:10:57.480 --> 00:10:59.899 and this seemed like a huge systemic driver. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:02.980 It's almost like the democratic process itself. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.159 or at least the way it's practiced in some of 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:07.779 these regions, incentivizes leaving things unfinished. 00:11:08.100 --> 00:11:09.960 They call it the regime change curse. It's a 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:12.120 massive factor. Just imagine you get elected 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:14.519 as the new governor of a province. Your predecessor, 00:11:14.779 --> 00:11:17.019 who you just defeated in a really bitter, expensive 00:11:17.019 --> 00:11:19.820 campaign, started a massive highway project. 00:11:20.059 --> 00:11:22.820 It's maybe 40 % done when you take office. Okay, 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:24.960 so I'm the new governor. I'm looking at this 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:27.259 half -built highway. If you spend the rest of 00:11:27.259 --> 00:11:30.240 your term finishing it, who actually gets the 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:32.279 credit from the voters? The guy who started it. 00:11:32.379 --> 00:11:34.879 I mean... His name is probably already carved 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:37.960 into the cornerstone. Exactly. So purely out 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.840 of political survival and ego, you have a perverse 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:44.720 incentive to kill that project. That is wild. 00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:47.860 You stop the funding. You claim his project was 00:11:47.860 --> 00:11:50.759 corrupt or poorly planned. You let the concrete 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.480 rot. And then you start your own massive project 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:55.659 from scratch just so you can put your name on 00:11:55.659 --> 00:11:57.919 the shiny new cornerstone. And then four years 00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:00.000 later, I lose the election and the next guy comes 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.580 in and kills my project. And the cycle continues. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.620 So you end up with a landscape completely littered 00:12:05.620 --> 00:12:08.139 with. half -finished monuments to political ego. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:10.259 It's like a neighborhood deciding to build a 00:12:10.259 --> 00:12:12.740 house and then burning it down every four years 00:12:12.740 --> 00:12:14.679 just because they didn't like the original architect. 00:12:15.019 --> 00:12:18.200 Nothing ever actually gets built. And that is 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:20.399 exactly why the management study found such a 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:22.659 strong correlation between political volatility 00:12:22.659 --> 00:12:26.120 and ghost projects. Stable governance, whatever 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:29.000 you might think of its policies, tends to finish 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:32.419 things volatile highly polarized governance creates 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:35.059 ghosts now i want to zoom out a bit we focused 00:12:35.059 --> 00:12:36.960 heavily on the philippines because the audit 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:40.070 data there is so fresh and detailed. But the 00:12:40.070 --> 00:12:42.789 sources make it very clear that this is absolutely 00:12:42.789 --> 00:12:44.850 not unique to Southeast Asia. They have a whole 00:12:44.850 --> 00:12:47.230 section on global sightings. Right. It's a global 00:12:47.230 --> 00:12:49.649 pandemic of bad management and corruption. It 00:12:49.649 --> 00:12:53.409 affects Africa, South Asia, Latin America. Let's 00:12:53.409 --> 00:12:55.830 look at Nigeria, for example. The source material 00:12:55.830 --> 00:12:59.190 cites a report regarding N17 trillion in abandoned 00:12:59.190 --> 00:13:02.190 infrastructure. N17 trillion, Nayara. Converting 00:13:02.190 --> 00:13:03.950 that is tricky because of fluctuating exchange 00:13:03.950 --> 00:13:06.309 rates. But just to give you an idea, we're talking 00:13:06.309 --> 00:13:09.090 about tens of billions. US dollars. That is a 00:13:09.090 --> 00:13:11.889 massive structural chunk of the national GDP 00:13:11.889 --> 00:13:15.799 tied up in nothing. It is. The Chartered Institute 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:18.840 of Project Managers of Nigeria flagged this crisis. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:22.080 They pointed to poor planning and weak institutions. 00:13:22.820 --> 00:13:25.639 And the cultural context there is very similar 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:27.659 to what we just discussed, the opening ceremony 00:13:27.659 --> 00:13:30.299 culture. Right. There is a massive amount of 00:13:30.299 --> 00:13:32.639 political capital and press coverage to be gained 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.139 by announcing a multibillion dollar project. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:37.519 There is very little political capital gained 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.799 by doing the boring. invisible day -to -day work 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:44.179 of maintenance or seeing a complex 10 -year project 00:13:44.179 --> 00:13:46.519 through to completion. It's the exact same story 00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:49.559 in India. The sources mention these literal monuments 00:13:49.559 --> 00:13:52.240 of corruption in the state of Chhattisgarh. They 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:54.559 use the term crore in the report. Right. And 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:57.279 for our global audience, a crore is a unit in 00:13:57.279 --> 00:13:59.460 the South Asian numbering system equal to 10 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:01.899 million. So when the report talks about projects 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:04.500 worth ours is 900 crore lying totally abandoned, 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:08.330 that's 9 billion rupees. Again. Hundreds of millions 00:14:08.330 --> 00:14:11.029 of dollars just sitting in limbo. And in Mexico, 00:14:11.149 --> 00:14:12.789 the focus of the reporting was on the health 00:14:12.789 --> 00:14:16.370 sector. They cited 250 unfinished hospitals and 00:14:16.370 --> 00:14:19.250 clinics across the country. 250 hospitals. That 00:14:19.250 --> 00:14:21.289 one really hits hard. Because that brings us 00:14:21.289 --> 00:14:23.909 directly to the concept of opportunity cost. 00:14:24.330 --> 00:14:27.490 This is the core economic concept we really need 00:14:27.490 --> 00:14:30.269 to hammer home when discussing ghost projects. 00:14:30.549 --> 00:14:32.690 Let's do it. When we say the money was wasted, 00:14:32.970 --> 00:14:35.090 people usually just think about the tax dollars 00:14:35.090 --> 00:14:38.049 vanishing from a spreadsheet. But the real tangible 00:14:38.049 --> 00:14:41.149 cost is what didn't happen because that money 00:14:41.149 --> 00:14:43.610 was tied up. The surgery that didn't happen because 00:14:43.610 --> 00:14:45.690 the hospital wasn't built. Exactly. The child 00:14:45.690 --> 00:14:47.789 who didn't get an education because the classroom 00:14:47.789 --> 00:14:51.529 is just a ghost on paper. The harvest that rotted 00:14:51.529 --> 00:14:54.429 because the road is impassable mud. That is the 00:14:54.429 --> 00:14:57.490 opportunity cost. It's not just lost money. It 00:14:57.490 --> 00:14:59.549 effectively slows down the development of the 00:14:59.549 --> 00:15:02.610 entire civilization. It's a theft of time and 00:15:02.610 --> 00:15:05.289 potential. So we have the mechanics, the fake 00:15:05.289 --> 00:15:07.490 feasibility studies, the mobilization fees, we 00:15:07.490 --> 00:15:10.110 have the psychology, the gothic horror of the 00:15:10.110 --> 00:15:12.830 ruin, and we have the global scale of the problem. 00:15:13.070 --> 00:15:16.350 The picture is, frankly, pretty bleak. It is. 00:15:16.450 --> 00:15:19.129 Is there any way to actually exercise these ghosts? 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:21.899 The sources mention civic participation is a 00:15:21.899 --> 00:15:23.580 key factor, but I have to be honest, that sounds 00:15:23.580 --> 00:15:25.820 a bit like a political buzzword. It does sound 00:15:25.820 --> 00:15:27.980 a little fluffy, but the data actually backs 00:15:27.980 --> 00:15:30.539 it up. The American Journal of Management Practice 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:33.440 Study found that regions with high civic participation 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:36.720 had significantly better completion rates. But 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:39.039 we need to be very specific about what participation 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:41.759 means in this context. It doesn't just mean showing 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:44.740 up to vote every few years. It means being annoying. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.340 It means being incredibly... persistently annoying. 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:51.379 It means everyday citizens showing up to local 00:15:51.379 --> 00:15:54.100 town hall meetings and demanding to see the receipts. 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:57.179 It means community groups actually driving to 00:15:57.179 --> 00:16:00.059 the GPS coordinates of a proposed bridge and 00:16:00.059 --> 00:16:02.840 taking photos of the empty lot. Independent verification. 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:05.820 Constant verification. There's a formal concept 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:08.580 for this called social auditing. In some of the 00:16:08.580 --> 00:16:10.500 more successful case studies, local communities 00:16:10.500 --> 00:16:12.559 have set up volunteer committees that literally 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.039 stand at the site and count the bags of cement 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.179 arriving. Wow. They refuse to trust the paper 00:16:18.179 --> 00:16:21.100 reality. They only trust their own eyes. That's 00:16:21.100 --> 00:16:23.539 a really heavy burden to place on citizens, though. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:25.779 People who are already busy working and just 00:16:25.779 --> 00:16:27.820 trying to live their lives. It's like, hey, in 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:29.500 addition to your full -time job and raising your 00:16:29.500 --> 00:16:32.240 kids, you also need to be a volunteer forensic 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.919 accountant for the government. It is a massive 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:38.200 unfair burden. But currently, the alternative 00:16:38.200 --> 00:16:42.500 is the ghost. Corrupt actors actively rely on 00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:45.279 the fact that infrastructure procurement is boring. 00:16:45.610 --> 00:16:48.309 and highly technical. They bank on the public 00:16:48.309 --> 00:16:50.769 checking out when they start talking about zoning 00:16:50.769 --> 00:16:52.950 and procurement laws. When the public checks 00:16:52.950 --> 00:16:55.649 back in, the ghost strip becomes almost impossible 00:16:55.649 --> 00:16:58.289 to pull off. Transparency is the ghostbuster. 00:16:58.450 --> 00:17:01.350 Sunlight is the best disinfectant. When normal 00:17:01.350 --> 00:17:04.230 people start asking, hey, where's the 15 % mobilization 00:17:04.230 --> 00:17:06.809 fee and who exactly signed this completion certificate, 00:17:07.269 --> 00:17:10.289 the culture of impunity evaporates. It's empowering, 00:17:10.470 --> 00:17:12.529 but also frustrating that it's so necessary. 00:17:13.069 --> 00:17:14.809 I want to circle back to that Gothic idea for 00:17:14.809 --> 00:17:17.029 a second before we wrap up today. Sure. You mentioned 00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:19.309 earlier that these ruins are physical symbols 00:17:19.309 --> 00:17:21.789 of broken promises. Do you think there's a way 00:17:21.789 --> 00:17:24.289 to reclaim them? Or are they just permanent scars 00:17:24.289 --> 00:17:27.390 on the landscape? Well, some can be rehabilitated. 00:17:27.569 --> 00:17:30.450 There are cases where a new administration, usually 00:17:30.450 --> 00:17:33.569 under intense public pressure, revives a ghost 00:17:33.569 --> 00:17:36.450 project and actually finishes it. But often the 00:17:36.450 --> 00:17:39.759 physical degradation is just too severe. Rebar 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:42.680 rusts quickly. Concrete cracks and degrades. 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:45.680 They have to be torn down. Sometimes. But honestly, 00:17:45.859 --> 00:17:47.839 sometimes the most powerful thing a community 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:51.400 can do is actively acknowledge the ghost. Don't 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:53.720 let it just fade into the background noise of 00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:56.900 the city. Point at it. Call it what it is. Say 00:17:56.900 --> 00:17:59.920 loudly, that is where our tax money went. Make 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:02.420 it a public monument to the failure of that administration 00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:05.019 so that it doesn't happen again. That's a chilling 00:18:05.019 --> 00:18:08.309 thought. A monument to failure. It's better than 00:18:08.309 --> 00:18:10.750 pretending it's not there. Ghosts thrive when 00:18:10.750 --> 00:18:12.789 people refuse to look at them. Well, we've certainly 00:18:12.789 --> 00:18:15.750 unpacked a massive amount today. From the fake 00:18:15.750 --> 00:18:18.089 feasibility studies and the mobilization heists 00:18:18.089 --> 00:18:20.329 to the haunting of the Philippine countryside 00:18:20.329 --> 00:18:23.269 and the tens of billions of dollars missing in 00:18:23.269 --> 00:18:26.130 Nigeria and India. It's a heavy topic. It really 00:18:26.130 --> 00:18:29.589 is. It's a stark reminder that the most dangerous 00:18:29.589 --> 00:18:32.089 things in the world aren't always what's hiding 00:18:32.089 --> 00:18:34.410 in the dark. Sometimes it's what's hiding in 00:18:34.410 --> 00:18:36.869 plain sight in a municipal budget report. And 00:18:36.869 --> 00:18:38.950 it's a reminder to look much closer at the built 00:18:38.950 --> 00:18:41.269 environment around you. Don't just accept the 00:18:41.269 --> 00:18:43.829 paper reality. That is exactly the thought I 00:18:43.829 --> 00:18:46.309 want to leave everyone with today. The next time 00:18:46.309 --> 00:18:48.670 you are driving to work or walking through your 00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:51.250 city and you see a construction site that's been 00:18:51.250 --> 00:18:54.109 quiet for just a little too long. Maybe the weeds 00:18:54.109 --> 00:18:55.690 are growing up through the tracks of an abandoned 00:18:55.690 --> 00:18:59.289 excavator. Or maybe you see a giant faded billboard 00:18:59.289 --> 00:19:02.230 announcing a world -class health facility, but 00:19:02.230 --> 00:19:05.089 behind the fence, it is just a pile of gravel. 00:19:05.309 --> 00:19:07.609 Don't just drive past it. Don't just drive past. 00:19:07.910 --> 00:19:10.569 Ask yourself, is this actual infrastructure being 00:19:10.569 --> 00:19:14.750 built? Or is it a ghost? And if it is a ghost, 00:19:14.910 --> 00:19:17.789 whose pocket is the money in right now? That 00:19:17.789 --> 00:19:19.750 is the question that scares them the most. Thanks 00:19:19.750 --> 00:19:21.710 for diving deep with us. Keep your eyes open 00:19:21.710 --> 00:19:22.829 out there. See you next time.