An investigation into the causes and effects of project delays in construction projects in Uganda.

Abstract

Building construction projects in Uganda’s construction industry are experiencing a wide spread of delays. The purpose of this study is to investigate causes of delays and their effects on building construction projects in Uganda. Many project delay attributes were identified through detailed literature review. Structured interviews and questionnaire survey were conducted across stakeholders that include; consultants, clients, contractors and to gather their views on causes of delay in delivery of projects. This research categorized the causes of delay under four main groups of consultant related, contractor related, client related and external related. When dealing with delays it is not only important to identify their causes and the extent to which they occur but also to identify and quantify the impacts of delays already occurred upon further project development. In order to determine responsibility and enable to learning from these undesirable events, the primary causes and origin of delays should be identified as well. The responsibility for the occurrence of a particular delay can be allocated to one or different project stakeholders. From allocating responsibilities, it is easy to know which stakeholder has a higher impact on delays. If these responsibilities are not identified before the onset of the project, there is a risk of conflicts among project stakeholders regarding the responsibility allocation that may lead even to litigation. The most significant factors of construction delays were identified as: (1) delay in assessing changes in the scope of work by the consultant; (2) financial indiscipline/dishonesty by the contractor; (3) inadequate contractor’s experience; (4) design errors made by designers; (5) inadequate site investigation by the consultant. Identification of the causes of potential delay factors that are likely to affect the timely delivery of projects can help to avoid extra costs through claims and disputes that arise among parties when delays are experienced.