Building and infrastructure projects at the North-
West Province Department of Public Works and
Roads (NW DPWR) often perform poorly in terms of
overrunning both the original approved timeline
and the budget. Adding to poor time and cost
performances, these projects often do not meet
the desired functional requirements. This article
reports on findings of a study which investigated
the causes of these poor performances in
the NW DPWR. Fifty potential causes of poor
performance were identified from literature.
These factors were grouped under three main
related categories of owner-related, contractorrelated
and consultant-related and were
subjected to a questionnaire survey to identify
the most critical causes of failure. The results
were analysed using the Relative Importance
Index (RII) and Spearman’s Rank Correlation
Coefficients. The results indicated that the
most significant causes of poor building and
infrastructure project performance in the NW
DPWR include underestimation of project cost,
the lack of experience in executing projects,
contractor’s cash-flow constraints, corruption and bribery during the bidding and contract
award phase, as well as poor site management
and supervision. Recommendations are made
to prevent similar causes of projects failure in the
NW DPWR in future.
Bou- en infrastruktuurprojekte by die Noordwes Provinsie se Departement van
Openbare Werke en Paaie (NW DPWR) ondervind gereeld tydvertragings in
projekvoltooiing sowel as probleme soos oorspandering en die gebrek aan
voldoening aan funksionele spesifikasies. Hierdie artikel rapporteer resultate van
’n studie wat onderneem is ten einde die redes waarom projekte in die NW
DPWR swak presteer, te ondersoek. Vanuit literatuur is vyftig potensiële redes vir
projekfaling geïdentifiseer. Die redes is in drie verwante kategorieë gegroepeer,
naamlik eienaarverwante, kontrakteurverwante en konsultantverwante
kategorieë. Deur middel van ’n vraelysopname is die mees kritieke redes
vir projekfaling geïdentifiseer. Die resulate is ontleed deur gebruik te maak
van ’n Relatiewe Sterkte Indeks asook die Spearman Rangorde Korrelasie
Koëffisiënte. Die resultate toon dat die mees beduidende redes vir projekfaling
in NW DPWR sluit onderberaming van projekkoste, gebrekkige ervaring in
projekimplementering, beperkte kontantvloei deur kontrakteurs, korrupsie
en omkopery tydens die tenderproses en kontrakaanstellings, sowel as swak
terreinbestuur en toesig in. Aanbevelings is gemaak om soortgelyke probleme
met toekomstige projekte in die NW DPWR te beperk.
