Analysis of Factors that Contribute to Unsuccessful Completion of Construction Projects in Public Learning Institutions: The Case of Baringo County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The proportion of construction works in public learning institutions in Kenya that are unsuccessfully completed is 30 percent. A construction project is unsuccessfully completed if it suffers time and cost overruns and is of poor quality. This study aims to determine how some known factors contribute to the unsuccessful completion of works in public learning institutes in Baringo County. Multistage random sampling was applied. The data was qualitative and was collected through a self-administered questionnaire-based survey and analyzed by descriptive analysis and multivariate regression. The level of covariance of the three dependent variables (timeliness, quality, and cost of works) was 0.000. Quality and timeliness of works had a weak but statistically significant negative correlation (-0.333). Cost and quality had a moderately positive correlation (0.503). All parameters demonstrated good capacity to explain variations of all three dependent variables with unstandardized beta coefficients of 0.250, except in the circumstances outlined below. Regarding the relationship between cost and quality when the project is faced with financing challenges, the t value was -0.499, which is outside the area of acceptance at a 95 confidence level. The observed power was 0.076, and the level of significance was 0.624. Regarding the relationship between cost and timeliness of works when the project is faced with procurement challenges, the significance value was 0.176 and the t value was 1.084. Regarding the relationship between quality and cost of works when the project is faced with planning challenges, the t statistic measured 0.547, the significance statistic was 0.591, and the observed explanatory power was 0.081. All the above statistics fell outside the margin of acceptance. Unsuccessful completion of construction works is rampant in Kenya’s public learning institutions because quality maximization, cost minimization, and timeliness of works cannot be attained concurrently. To maximize quality, the financing agent (NG-CDF) must forego cost minimization. The procurement team must forego cost minimization to realize timeliness. The planning team must forego quality maximization to minimize costs. It is necessary to evaluate the same research questions on a wider scale.

Keywords: Cost minimization; Quality maximization; Timeliness of works; Unsuccessful completion