Effective procurement of construction materials as a cost control method on construction sites in Uganda

Abstract

Procurement management in sustainable construction involves the processes required to acquire all necessary resources needed for the completion of a project from outside the project construction team. However, poor control and management of construction materials in the construction sites by the procurement department as well as the site supervisors and engineer’s contractors organization. This factor on cost has over the years been a significant barrier to the adoption of effective procurement of construction materials in the construction industry. This prompted the need to establish an effective strategy for construction materials procurement towards the enhancement of effective procurement of construction materials in Kampala region, Uganda. The research study adopted a mixed methodological approach, which involved the use of semistructured qualitative interviews and closed-ended quantitative questionnaires administered to construction stakeholders (contractors and consultants) in the Kampala region. Microsoft excel was used to analyise the quantitative data collected and ‘content analysis’ method was used to analyise the information collected through qualitative interview conducted. The research findings affirmed that for effective materials usage towards the enhancement of effective procurement the following factors should be considered. The need for the availability of materials proposed for the sustainable building construction in market. Effective strategic planning before procurement at design stage of building construction and to facilitate effective materials usage towards the enhancement of sustainable building production. In addition, the research findings confirmed that, despite the high initials cost of Electronic Materials Procurement Technology strategy (EMPTs), the EMPTs is found to be most effective and cost-efficient for materials procurement as compared with the Traditional Materials Procurement strategy (TMPs). The study concluded that proper consideration of these findings, by construction stakeholders in the private and public sectors of the industry, would enhance the production of sustainable buildings with production cost-efficiency and expected benefits of the building. This research study recommends, among other issues, the need of ‘comparative cost – benefit analysis of Electronic Materials Procurement Technology strategy (EMPTs) and Traditional Materials Procurement strategy (TMPs during sustainable building production, in the Uganda construction industry.