Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic to the Contractor Organizations in the Construction Industry.

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in late December 2019 has led to the closure of Wuhan, China, where the disease was first discovered and has spread to Malaysia in January 2020. The Malaysian Government’s initiative to limit people’s daily movement since March 2020 prevents the coronavirus from spreading even more as the virus can be transmitted through touch and air. The public health systems faced a burden; hence there is a need to flatten the curve of the COVID-19. However, due to the pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed by the Government, the construction industry has faced huge losses since all construction projects are put on hold for the people to prioritize more on their safety and health. Although delay issues commonly arise as an impact of a pandemic where force majeure is seen as an excusable risk that entitles contractors to time extensions, none of the parties can have monetary compensation to recover from the damages incurred due to the delay. Hence, this study focuses on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Malaysian contractors. A stratified random sampling method is to be used to provide practical means of enabling the data collection and for the research components to be carried out. 205 numbers of G7 Contractors in Klang Valley are the research participants. However only 63 feedbacks obtained which contributed to 30% response rates. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that there were five major impacts criteria faced by the contractors during pandemic. Therefore, the construction industry should be able to take preventive measures so that construction projects can still be executed whilst maintaining the well-being of all the parties involved during these uncertain times.