Correlates of Procurement Performance of Traditional and Labour-Only Methods in Nigeria

Abstract

Correlates of procurement performance of Traditional and Labour- only methods are investigated. Purpose of this study is to investigate if procurement challenges, contractual procedures, designer’s experience, building type and final contract sum have influences on the performance of both methods. 120 questionnaires were sent out to the various respondents who have used the two methods. 64 responses were received from 39 Traditional projects and 25 Labour-only projects. Results indicate that unit cost of Labour-only correlates significantly with all procurement challenges. Unit cost of Traditional procurement also correlates significantly with lack of adequate supervision while build time and total time both demonstrate significant relationships with most challenges. Labour-only performance factors demonstrate no significant correlation with contractual procedure, designer’s experience; build type and final contract sum. Traditional performance factors demonstrate no significant correlation with contractual procedures and designer’s experience while it demonstrates significant correlations with building type and final contract sum. Study concludes that procurement challenges in both methods affect their unit cost, build time and total time and may be expensive to use both methods. Performances of both methods do not depend on contractual procedure, and designer’s experience but that of Traditional method can be influenced by building type and final contract sum. Study recommendsthat consultants, clients and stakeholders should ensure that all challenges are well managed to avoid cost escalations. For better performance of future projects unit cost should be kept low while cost and time overruns must be avoided.Keywords: Correlates, Procurement performance, Traditional, Labour-only, Nigeria