Maturity of procurement units for public construction projects in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia’s construction sector has been a driving force in its economic growth over the last five years, before COVID-19 pandemic, due to massive government spending on infrastructure development. One of the resulting concerns has been the capacity of public procurement for construction works to select builders capable of delivering quality infrastructures. To address this concern, this paper presents a study to measure the maturity of procurement units for public construction projects. This study aimed to provide information for the Indonesian government in mitigating the risks related to its procurement unit’s capability of delivering its demanding infrastructure projects. This research used the maturity model developed specifically for construction public procurement. There were 48 respondents from the Ministry of Public Works and Housings’ 16 procurement units in 15 provinces. The analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics based on location groupings, overall maturity index, dimensions, and elements. The maturity of procurement units for construction projects remains at the second level of five. The need for further capacity-building programmes for procurement units in Indonesia is still relevant, especially the improvement of procurement planning as the first and most important part of the procurement processes.