scholarly journals A critical analysis of unethical professional practices in the construction industry in Southeast Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 44-48
Author(s):  
Anikwe Nnaemeka J ◽  
Agha Kalu A
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Unethical Practices ◽  
The Government

Economic transformation and the provision of basic infrastructure to engender growth and development in any nation is vested in the construction industry hence the massive investment of the government in this sector. However, the expected gains of the construction industry have been eroded by the failure of many construction projects due to unethical professional practices on the part of the construction professionals. This study analyzed the causes and effects of unethical practices on the industry and project delivery with measures to combat the unethical practices among the stakeholders. The study adopted the survey design and a stratified random sampling technique was used to select 140 respondents. A structured questionnaire was designed and administered to construction professionals (Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Builders and Engineers). The relative importance index tool was used to analyse the severity of the factors identified. Findings revealed the absence of punishment for unethical practices (0.94), collusion between officials, consultants and contractors (0.91), availability of loopholes in project monitoring (0.89), weak law enforcement institution (0.87) and greed for money (0.83) among others as major causes of unethical professional practices which have serious effects on the construction industry. The result also revealed poor workmanship and substandard project delivery (0.88), high cost of construction (0.86), the collapse of structures/buildings (0.82), inflated contract sums (0.81), high maintenance cost (0.79), time and cost overrun (0.76) as the extremely severe effects of unethical practices in the industry. Prosecution and punishment of offenders (0.98), the whilstle blower protection policies and rewards (0.84), strengthening of institutionand anticorruption agencies (0.78), award of contracts on merit (0.75) and civil society participation and oversight (0.68) were identified as highly effective measures to curtail unethical professional practices. The study recommends that the government being a major actor should abide by the due process of contract award and letting, using Public Procurement Act (PPA) guidelines in executing all its construction projects. The professionals, contractors and clients’ representatives should also exhibit high professional excellence through adherence to professional ethics and codes of conduct.

INDICATORS FOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS SUPPLY CHAIN ADAPTABILITY USING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY: A REVIEW

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Eze Okangba ◽  
Nthatisi Khatleli ◽  
David Root
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Unethical Practices

Projects supply chain is overwhelmed with unethical practices. Managing construction projects supply chain, which is traditionally void of transparency, has led to issues of corruption, vested interest, clientelism, ghosting, bid rigging and poor professional ethical standards. The centralized nature of data management in the construction industry is characterized by the lack of visibility and transparency of details and this lack of visibility is a major cause of inefficiency in construction project delivery. The objective of the paper is to assess the indicators for adaptability of projects supply chain using blockchain technology. The article adopts a bibliometrix strategy to extract qualitative data from existing peer-reviewed articles. The research design is a combination of different approaches, including bibliometric and visualization, bibliometric and content analysis, as well as bibliometric, visualization and content analysis. Data was obtained from articles indexed on SCOPUS and Web of Science. R-studio was used for data analysis, while VosViewer was used for visualization. The paper is a part of an on-going research. The research is exploratory and adopts a pragmatist approach. The research is expected to develop a framework that will introduce transparency and provenance in projects supply chain using blockchain technology. Findings from this review show that there are indicators for adaptability of construction projects supply chain using blockchain.

scholarly journals OUTCOMES OF UNETHICAL PRACTICES BY QUANTITY SURVEYORS IN NIGERIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
Ebunoluwa Bimbola Akinrata ◽  
Deji Rufus Ogunsemi ◽  
Olusola Festus Akinradewo
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Item Score ◽  
Unethical Practices ◽  
Ethical Misconduct ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual

Ethics have a verifiable effect on the validity and economic supportability of quantity studying practices and additionally influencing the individual security of the profession. There is a developing consent inside and outside the construction industry that unscrupulous practices are endemic in the construction industry especially quantity surveying practice in Nigeria. This paper thusly, x-rayed the outcomes of unethical practices by Quantity Surveyors in the construction industry in Nigeria, and likewise displays more scholarly and practical approach in dealing with moral appraisal of Quantity Surveyors in the construction industry and ways to improve moral standard among them. Very much organized polls (questionnaire) were self-administered to stakeholders and professionals in construction organizations. Literature review also revealed that unethical practices result to dissatisfied clients, late compensation due to delays, low productivity/efficiency of project team, deterioration in professionalism, poor workmanship, high maintenance, upward review of contract cost, poor project coordination, poor quality infrastructure development, stunted growth of the industry, reduction in the life span of building, loss of public trust, conflicts between client and construction team, poor quality of infrastructural development and loss of public trust. Data were collected and analyzed using Mean Item Score (MIS) and Standard Deviation (SD). The results shows that dissatisfaction of clients, High maintenance cost and Poor workmanship were perceived to be the major ethical misconduct by Quantity Surveyors in the construction industry. The study recommended that Quantity Surveyors should not always make financial benefits, other advantages as their real concern and gain cash unethically by all means. Others professionals in the industry ought to dependably be caution and endeavor not to keep any untrustworthy conduct among themselves. Major client in Nigeria construction industry, which is the government need to be fair to the Quantity Surveyors and other professionals in the construction industry.

Inhibiting Factors of Cost Performance in UAE Construction Projects

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Salem Ahmed Marey Alhammadi ◽  
◽  
Aftab Hameed Memon ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Index Method ◽  
Cost Performance ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Inhibiting Factors ◽  
Critical Problems ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

UAE construction industry frequently faces poor cost performance which commonly known as cost overrun problem. This problem is resulted from several factors and it is important to identify these cost overrun factors in order to avoid and minimize it. Hence, this paper focused on determined the relevancy of factors affecting cost performance in construction projects of UAE. Through a review of past research works conducted globally, 27 factors of cost overrun were listed and used for developing a structured questionnaire. A survey was conducted with 33 practitioners from client, consultant and contractors organizations involved in handling construction projects in UAE. The respondents were requested to state their perception regarding the relevancy of each of the factors that was perceived in context with cost overrun issue using 5-points Likert scale. The responses were analysed using average index method and the results found that all the 27 factors are relevant with construction industry of UAE in causing cost overrun. These factors can be used for further investigation to uncover critical problems of cost overrun.

scholarly journals Value Management in Practice: An Interview Survey

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therese Daddow ◽  
Martin Skitmore
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Value Management ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Construction Work ◽  
Value For Money ◽  
Extra Time ◽  
Prescriptive Literature ◽  
Interview Survey

Despite its obvious theoretical benefits, there has been some reservations regarding the practical implementation of Value Management (VM) for construction projects. In particular, these concerns the extra time and costs involved in conducting VM in relation to the actual benefits gained as a consequence of its use. This paper provides the result of an interview survey of the experiences and observations of 17 professionals working in the property and construction industry to establish the extent to which this is an issue. The main conclusion is that the process is working well, with VM being popular among those with experience in its use - which has been extended into the area of consultant selection. However, in contrast with the prescriptive literature, much of the participants' experiences appear to be more concerned with VM's contribution to the identification and management of the risks involved in project delivery than the straight value-for-money aspects. This may be due to the higher levels of uncertainty involved in construction work than in VM's original use in construction.

scholarly journals CRITICAL FACTORS VARYING CONSTRUCTION COST

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-117
Author(s):  
Tam Thi Minh Nguyen ◽  
Thi Hao Cao
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Multiple Linear Regression Model ◽  
Construction Cost ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Industry Sectors ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Chronic Problem

Construction industry is considered to be one of the most important industries in Vietnam's economy. But many construction industry sectors have been experienced chronic problem as cost overrun. Therefore, a conceptual model of factors influencing construction cost was developed to determine the key factors that cause difference between budget cost and actual cost and some solutions are recommended to be applied to achieve the best outcome of cost. The result of analyzing 216 construction projects completed from 2002 to 2007 by companies located in Ho Chi Minh City indicated 6 main factors varying construction cost: project planners, project executives, economics, political, natural environment, fraudulent and lost. The results of multiple linear regression model confirmed the relationship between these above 6 factors and construction cost with the theories are supported at the statistically significant level of 0.05.

scholarly journals Effective Selection of Resources for Construction using Program Tool

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 2927-2931
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Resource Selection ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Cost Performance ◽  
Programming Tool ◽  
Effective Selection ◽  
Selection Factor ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Indian Scenario

In the Indian scenario construction industry facing a major problem is cost and time overrun. Effective time performance and cost performance are very important to execute the project in a successful manner by keeping them within the prescribed schedule and cost. Overall cost and duration of construction projects affected by the effective resource selection factor. This paper's objective is to rectify the improper selection of resources by a programming tool. Field survey and codebook study did collect the needed data to feed in the programming tool. The prepared tool gets distributed and making to access by every stakeholder of construction projects. This may result in the selection of construction resources as effectively. The term cost overrun in the resource part will be reduced.

Roles of Contractors in Implementing Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC) in Construction Projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (S1) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Mohd Shazreen Seman ◽  
Mohd Reza Esa ◽  
Mohd Reeza Yusof
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Technical Committee ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Industry Standard ◽  
The Government ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

In recent decades, the construction industry has been widely criticized for its lack of efficiency and productivity, and it has been shown that the Malaysian construction industry records poor quality on its projects. To overcome this issue, the Technical Committee on Quality Assessment in Construction with the support of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has introduced Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC). QLASSIC is a scoring system that is used to assess and evaluate the performance of construction buildings. It is based on the Construction Industry Standard (CIS 7:2006). Unfortunately, this assessment system had poor implementation since its introduction in November 2006. QLASSIC was not extensively implemented and was taken lightly by the contractors and developers in Malaysia. There are still a huge number of contractors that are not aware of QLASSIC even the big construction companies. Thus, this research is aimed at investigating the contractor’s perspective towards the implementation of QLASSIC in the construction industry in Malaysia. Three objectives are developed to achieve the aim: (1) identification of the needs to implement QLASSIC; (2) investigation of issues and challenges to implement QLASSIC and (3) recommendation of strategies to implement QLASSIC. Structured questionnaire surveys were distributed to the G7 and G6 contractors in the Klang Valley area; which may have or may not have experience in implementing QLASSIC in their projects. The result revealed that majority of the respondents were aware and understand the needs of QLASSIC implementation, but there were still few who were unfamiliar with the QLASSIC. The current level of implementation of QLASSIC in Malaysia is still not satisfactory due to several issues and challenges acting as barriers to its implementation. Therefore, the initiatives from the government are important to promote QLASSIC implementation in the construction industry. By doing this, the contractors would be aware of the implementation of QLASSIC in the construction industry. The significance of this research is that it will assist contractors and other construction players in comprehending the implications and importance of QLASSIC implementation.

scholarly journals Studying the methods for determining and maintaining sustainability of a construction firm

2018 ◽  
Vol 251 ◽  
pp. 05017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azariy Lapidus ◽  
Ivan Abramov
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Construction Operations ◽  
Resource Potential ◽  
Efficient Organization ◽  
Scientific Problem ◽  
Construction Firms ◽  
Construction Firm ◽  
The Government

Against the backdrop of the economic crisis and the complicated international situation, the government pays great attention to reforming the construction industry, creating the conditions for adapting construction firms to the existing situation and associated entrepreneurial and production risks. Concurrently, as the ever-increasing competition places higher requirements on potential participants in construction projects under state-financed and municipal contracts, new laws and regulations are being developed and improved, and bidding rules are systemized and optimized to help select the most reliable contractors resistant to various impacts. The purpose of this paper is to describe the term “sustainability of a construction firm” and to set the tasks of research into the ways of increasing sustainability of construction firms based on efficient organization of construction operations and up-to-date production and labor technology. The scientific problem suggested for review lies in ensuring guaranteed sustainability of construction firms amid uncertainties of construction operations. This paper focuses on research into and the methods for determining a correlation between sustainability of a construction firm and its resource potential that depends on a number of diverse factors.

scholarly journals Factors influencing decisions on delay claims in construction contracts for Indian scenario

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nitin Balkrishna Chaphalkar ◽  
K. C. Iyer
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Delay Claims ◽  
Indian Scenario ◽  
Probing Questions

  Construction industry in India is second largest next to agriculture. In current era of infrastructure development construction projects occupy a key position. In any construction project contract time and cost overrun is a common feature, which gives rise to claims leading to disputes. These disputes if not handled properly tend to consume time and money of all parties to the contract. To resolve the dispute in optimum time, it is essential to understand the root cause of disputes as early as possible. Hence there is a need of analyzing the disputes scientifically.  The present study reveals from the study of arbitration awards that the causes for delay claims can be grouped in domains and the probable decisions to the disputes can be traced through the probing questions considered by decision makers. This paper attempts to identify questions related to disputes for Indian scenario through literature, arbitration awards, court cases and discussions with professionals.

scholarly journals Optimization strategies to eliminate interface conflicts in complex supply chains of construction projects

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 712-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianqian JU ◽  
Lieyun DING ◽  
Miroslaw J. SKIBNIEWSKI
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Optimization Strategy ◽  
Delivery Methods ◽  
Integrated Project Delivery ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
Complex Construction

The supply chains of complex construction projects are characterized by multi-disciplinary participants, adversarial short-term relationships and fragmentations in project delivery procedures. Multi-disciplinary participants tend to make deci­sions on project activities based on their own objectives and value systems independently with little regard of holistic project performance. The lack of common values results in a limited understanding of how behaviors of one discipline impact on the related disciplines. This has led to tons of interface conflicts which ultimately affect project effectiveness. This paper investi­gates this problem by discussing Interface Value for the core players to understand the value-driven behaviors on the boundaries among owner and multiple prime contractors in complex construction projects. Two types of interface conflicts are recognized and defined. Value Optimization Strategy is proposed under status quo delivery methods by adjusting and reallocating interface responsibilities between related contractors. Improvements of procurement procedures are the key solutions to interface con­flicts. Prospects of integrated project delivery (IPD) in eliminating interface conflicts are also discussed. The paper concludes that Value Optimization Strategy and IPD-based approach are expected to eliminate interface conflicts of complex construction projects, integrate the complex supply chain and lower the potential risks for project delivery delay and cost overrun.

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