Determinates of project completion in time a case of dedo and kersa woreda water project found in jimma zone

Abstract

This study sought to investigate on factors affecting the completion of water projects in time from contractor, client and consultants’ perspectives during the construction phase. The study was a case of water projects implemented by OWSS in Kersa and Dedo woredas and examined how and to what extent financing, monitoring, contractor’s capacity and contract variations as important parameters in a project’s construction phase influence the completion time of water projects in Dedo and Kersa woreda.The study was explanatory survey in nature. Selfadministered questionnaires and interviews were used to collect primary data while content analysis of relevant project implementation. Questionnaires were administered to persons purposively drawn from contractors, consultants and clients (OWSS personnel), involved in the implementation of the nine projects in the study. Explanatory statistics, correlation and regression analysis through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 was used to analyze data and present the findings of the study. Strata and Census survey sampling were Multiple regression analysis of the variables at 1% level of significance and 99% level of confidence showed that, financing had a 0.003 level of significance; monitoring 0.002, contractor’s capacity 0.001 level of significance while contract variations had a 0.004 level of significance implying that the most significant factor is contractor’s capacity followed by monitoring of projects. The data findings also showed that financing effectiveness will lead to a 0.534 increase in timely completion of projects; monitoring effectiveness will lead to a 0.323 increase in timely completion of the projects; contractor’s capacity will lead to a 0.356 increase in timely completion of the projects; and contract variations will lead to a 0.237 decrease in timely completion of the projects. This means that the most significant factor is contractor’s capacity followed by monitoring. The most independent variables which affect project completion in time were financing, monitoring, contract variations and contractor’s capacity The level of financing of a project’s construction activities and its timeliness was found to be a determinant of its completion time, and that effective monitoring partially depends on adequacy of supervisory personnel as well as timeliness in decision making and taking of actions to alleviate significant project target deviations that exist. Contractor’s incompetence that can be attributed to inadequate equipment and personnel with required skills as well as financial difficulties among others is a key factor contributing to time overruns in the water projects, while contract variations are common among the water projects and they impact negatively on the projects’ completion time. To improve on the completion time of water projects in WSSs, It is important that WSSREB emphasizes on a comprehensive feasibility based investment and financing plan from all WSSs as a prerequisite for funding of proposed projects in order to ensure adequacy of projects‟ budgets and timely payments of contractors certificates. All WSBs should adopt a comprehensive result based monitoring system with which every implementing agent should comply so as to enhance effectiveness in monitoring of ongoing projects. WSBs should also ensure that the contractors they procure will have successfully executed similar projects in the past as an assurance of adequacy of the contractor’s capacity in construction management. To mitigate on the negative impact of contract variations, WSSREB and WSSO should ensure that adequate forecasting mechanisms are included in the implementation plans to enable identification of potential threats early enough. It is expected that the study findings are useful to the government and Water Supply Service in formulating strategies aimed at improving completion time of water projects and other public infrastructure project implementers