Assessment of Client-Related Factors for Delaying of Public Buildings Constructions Projects in Local Government Authorities: A Case of Arusha City Council

Abstract

This study aimed to assess client-related factors for delaying of Public buildings construction projects in Local Government Authorities. The factors assessed were; project design, political intervention and decision-making challenges. The study was conducted at Arusha City Council (ACC) employing cross-sectional survey through semi-structured questionnaire and interview guide to 55 sampled informants. . Cross tabulation with Chi-square tests was deployed to analyse data. Following the findings of the assessment of client-related factors for delaying of public buildings construction projects in Arusha City Council, it is concluded that inadequate project design is one of the major causes of delays of public buildings construction projects in local government authorities. More specifically, variations due to inadequate design, the effect of insufficient budget resulting from inadequate project design and insufficient professional staff are the main causes of delays in public buildings constructions project. It is also apparent that political intervention is another major factor that contributes to delaying public building construction in Arusha City council (ACC). It is also concluded that decision making challenges is another major contributor to delaying public building construction projects in ACC. More specifically, it is concluded that bureaucracy in the decisions making process, unnecessary directives by government officials and delays in the payment of interim certificates are the main causes of delaying public buildings constructions projects in ACC. It is recommended that the government should employ an adequate number of building construction engineers, quality assurance officers, as well as project monitoring and evaluations officers who are expected to be tasked to ensure that projects are designed adequately, and their execution are managed and monitored effectively. Also, the government should avail adequate budget for all public building construction works and should pay interim certificates timely to avoid delaying the projects. In addition, the government should formulate and institute a general guideline that obstructs politician and government officers to be bid for public building construction works in their respective councils. This measure is expected to prevent conflict of interest among politicians and government officers.