Impact of the Nigerian procurement reform on planning practices of construction practitioners

Abstract

Adoption of proficient planning practices is central to efficiency, viability, and sustainability of construction projects and therefore integral to attainment of a resilient and sustainable built environment. Lack of adequate planning practices by construction practitioners can result in colossal loss of investment capital and waste of hard earned tax payers’ money in public projects. The Nigeria’s Public Procurement Act 2007 was enacted to promote effective resource management and curtail practices that led to rampant projects failure. A decade after its enactment, it became essential to examine its impact on planning practices of practitioners. Thus, this study aimed at determining the reform’s impact on planning practices of public construction practitioners in Nigeria. The quantitative survey research methodology was adopted, with structured questionnaires administered to Contractors, Consultants and Construction professionals in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agnecies (MDAs)’ in Abuja, Nigeria. ANOVA and Tukey’s Honest tests were employed in the analysis. Findings showed significant difference in the mean responses with regards to the reform’s impact on planning practices of practitioners. The study concluded that the reform has not been a wasted effort, but more is desired in implementation to impact on transparency in bid openings, timelier contract documents development, greater maintenance planning, better budgeting and cash flow management, and ICT usages. It recommended further initiatives to demonstrate government’s commitment to promoting transparency in project planning such as mandatory publications of procurement proceedings, independent ratings of public projects, tying of donor funding to mainstreaming of transparency and synergising to promote Building Information Modelling (BIM) in project planning.

Keywords: Planning Practices, Practitioners, Procurement-Reform, Public Construction Projects