Investigating the effect of procurement procedures on performance of construction projects in Uganda.
Abstract
Purpose - Procurement systems are vital in ensuring the successful implementation of a
construction project, precisely executed for all phases of any particular project. Therefore, this
research project airned to investigate, the influence of procurement procedure on construction
project performance. The problem of procurement method adopted in Ugandan construction
industry have raised serious concern to the project stakeholders and the construction industry as a
whole. The airn of the study is to explore the influence of procurement procedures on construction
project in Kampala and its environs.
Design/metlrodology/approach - The study adopted a questionnaire survey approach to achieve its
purpose, The survey was conducted using purposive sampling techniques. Four categories of
variables namely: project design choice, bid invitation and evaluation, Compensation fonns and
project outcome evaluation were used. Data were collected with the aid of structured
questionnaires and analyzed to establish the influence o1'project design choice, bid invitation and
evaluation, compensation form on construction project performance, and then evaluate the project
outcome using percentages and mean. Empirical data were collected through a survey o1'56
respondents where 32 were engineers and 24 procurement department personnel.
findings/conclusions/recommendation - the results reveals that a number of procurement
approaches were used at the same time. It was found that the project was structured to have
rnultiple bids for sections of the project as opposed to the norm where the bid is done for the whole
project. Most of the bidders had less than 5 years of experience and both compensation methods
were used. '[he cost of the projects increased while completion time for those projects also
increased. lt was also found that the client was satisfied with the service and quality of the project
and they were not satisfied with the cost and time taken. The study concludes that the procurement
procedure has a big influence to the construction project performance. It recommends that one
procurement method to be used, contractors/bidders must have over 10 years of experience, client
have to evaluate the contractors/bidders technical and financial performance before engaging thern
on a project, cost reimbursement payment method should be used and personnel involved in
projects should be taken for project manageinent and contract management training.