Applying Open Systems Theory to Post-Contract Public Project Governance in Malaysia

Abstract

Public project governance is essential for ensuring accountability, transparency, and performance in the public sector. In Malaysia, persistent cost overruns, implementation delays, audit noncompliance, and recurring weaknesses documented in Auditor General reports reveal structural deficiencies in current governance arrangements. Despite regulatory reforms and procedural controls, governance failures continue, indicating fragmentation rather than systemic coherence.This study reconceptualizes post-contract public project governance as an open and adaptive system. Utilizing Open Systems Theory (OST), it develops a conceptual framework in which institutional inputs such human resource capacity, accountability structures, and contractual completeness are transformed through performance monitoring and change and risk management processes to yield project performance outcomes. Governance effectiveness is thus understood as the result of systemic alignment among institutional capacities, enforcement mechanisms, environmental pressures, and feedback loops. By extending OST to post-contract public project governance, this study advances an integrative theoretical perspective that transcends isolated variable analysis and provides strategic implications for strengthening governance reform in Malaysia and comparable institutional contexts.