Investigating Causes and Impacts of Poor Contract Administration in Road Construction: The Case of West Arsi Zone Road Construction Projects

Abstract

The road construction industry is an important part of the economic backbone in Ethiopia and poor contract administration in road Construction projects is a significant cause of inefficient construction process. The purpose of this research study was to identify the root causes, to assess the impact and to determine the appropriate mitigation measures to improve the existing contract administration process in road construction projects in West Arsi Zone. The type of this research is quantitative and qualitative as well as inferential statistics in its behavior. This study was conducted through a questionnaire survey and case study design. The target populations in this study were 95 road projects being constructed in the West Arsi Zone road construction projects and the respondents were the professional employees assigned to the road construction projects. In this study, the sample was considered using systematic random sampling and so that the representative sample of 77 respondents were considered for this study analysis. From the study result; the major root cause factor of poor contract administration are financial problem, change in specification & design and differing site condition with RII of 80 %, 79.43 % and 77.71% respectively. Whereas the major critical impact factors of poor contract administration are mainly cost overrun, poor quality and degradation of standards with RII of 79.14%, 78% and 75.71% respectively. The mitigation measures of the quality problems of the road construction projects in order to improve the existing contract administration processes in West Arsi Zone road construction projects are regulating contractors, quality management of contactor and regular site supervision and contract Administration. The study concluded that; all construction stake holders should participate with sensitive and important decision-making in order to solve these problems and develop project performance to minimize disputes between owner and contractors. This research strongly suggested that all concerned body should take a measure of applying contract administration procedures.