Assessment of causes of construction projects delays and their impacts on costs in Rwandan public institutions. A case study of RTDA, EWSA and Gicumbi district

Abstract

Construction industry in Rwanda is facing challenge of delay during executing construction work, this has attracted many researchers and different practitioners to investigate the causes of delay and analyze the overall effects on construction project. The aim of this research was to assess the causes of construction projects delay and their impacts on cost in Rwandan Public institutions in Rwanda where researcher selected three construction projects from three different public institutions which had delayed for long period and these construction projects were construction of water supply system and reservoir ( EWSA) that had delayed for 496 days, construction of maternity ward at Rutare health center ( Gicumbi district) that had delayed for 721 days and construction of access road to Rusizi III hydropower that had delayed for over 700 days (RTDA), The information of these delayed projects researcher gathered them from Auditor General report 2016. The information gathered from these 3 institutions has shown that 115 Consultants, owners and contractors were involved on these delayed projects and researcher has taken them as population of the study where sample has been determined by using Yamane formula and the 89 respondents have been determined as sample size. Researcher developed questionnaire contained 38 causes of construction project delays and their impacts on cost in Rwandan public institutions, that were grouped into 4 categories (Owner related causes, contractors related causes, consultants related causes and external factors related causes) and to knew the views of respondents about cost increase when delays occur, researcher has included section of effects on questionnaire containing 6 effects of delays. 71 respondents (79.7%) have returned questionnaires and 20.3% have failed to do so. The data collected have been analyzed by using statistical methods and the findings of research show that the 8 most important causes of delay that impacts the cost of projects are lack of fund by owner to finance project, poor planning, controlling , scheduling and monitoring of the project by owner, increase of material cost, choosing contractors who bid at lower price, inflation, experience of consultants not enough compared to the scope of construction projects, lack of experience by contractors and lack of skilled workers for project implementation. Respondents revealed that when these delay occur, they affect costs of the projects and they bring conflicts between owners of the projects and contractors. Based on the findings of research, recommendations have been given to minimize the causes and effects of delays in construction projects delays in Rwandan Public institutions and room for future research have been suggested by researcher.