Study to Improve Poor Time Performance of Local Contractors. A Case of Public Construction Projects in Mizan-Aman City.

Abstract

Projects such as buildings, roads, dams, and railways are the top vital construction projects in developing countries like Ethiopia. For our country growth in national income, those projects play a crucial role and also, they are major drivers for the economic development of our country. Many projects in the country, regional, zonal, wareda, city and kebele level involve local contractors at different public construction projects. However, projects executed by the local contractors face critical problems with respect to time and also the local contractors need performance improvement to achieve their project goals with quality, cost and time. This study attempts to assess on the causes of local contractor’s poor time performance in public construction projects, to identify the impacts on the projects, stakeholders of the projects & the construction industries and developing strategic techniques to improve local contractor time performance during construction a case in Mizan-Aman city public construction projects. To receive data from different construction experts and to achieve this research objectives, the research conducts desk studies and a questionnaire survey with a total of 48 possible factors, 12 possible impacts and 16 possible strategic time performance improvement techniques are listed in the questionnaire survey and this questionnaire survey was conducted with different stakeholders from client, consultants and contractors. Final results of the desk study show all the projects handled by the local contractors used D.B.B. (design bid build) delivery systems and unit rate contract types and they suffer delays and the time needed to complete the projects required more than 41 % of the original contract time. And the results from the questionnaire show, rise in costs or prices of materials (price inflation), shortage of materials, changes of design by owner or his agent during work and poor project management system by contractors as the top ranked factors causing poor time performance by local contractors. The impacts of poor time performance by local contractors are; cost overruns on the projects, additional cost to contractors depending on time delayed, the end users of project loss its benefit from the projects and expose employer for additional cost & loss of its investment money return from projects & also it may create negative attitudes towards the industry by eroding mutual trust and respect among the parties. and some of the techniques that used to improve local contractor’s poor time performance are; use appropriate construction methods by contractors, hire skilled workers by all of the stakeholders to achieve good progress and proper planning & scheduling of construction projects by contractors. The local contractors should have enough cash & materials availability before the project implementation work starts and it should have good project management system and also it should have communicated and coordinate smoothly with other parties in the project.