Assessment of a Holistic Approach to Managing Contractor Claims for Building Projects in Two Selected Local Authorities in Botswana

Abstract

This article discusses findings of a study that investigated the effectiveness of seven strategies that were identified for holistically managing contractor claims for building projects. Previous findings had indicated that almost half of the contractor claims were due to the clients’ behavioral aspects which were within their control. The study was the premised on a notion that a holistic approach in managing contractor claims avoids or prevents their occurrence and may reduce their impact on projects. Two local authorities in Botswana were used in the study in which three methods were used. A questionnaire survey, focus group discussion and interview were used to collect data and triangulate the results. Results indicated that the studied local authorities did not fully utilize the seven strategies for holistically managing contractor claims and average score 43% was achieved, which was below the 50% mark that had been set for effectiveness. Specifically, lack of effective management of events leading to claims arose due to lack of institutionalizing post-completion project evaluations; lack of employer’s restraint in making significant changes during construction, client delays during the construction period; client lack of an adequate and versatile project team to deal with activities and processes in the pre-contract, post-contract and contract phases. Despite the limitation of selecting two local authorities out of a total 16 local authorities, the results provide an insight into the claim management regime of these entities namely that improvement is needed for strategies to reduce avoidable claims that increase project completion periods and costs.