TITLE OF RESEARCH

Investigation on causes of time overrun on projects in Botswana

PROBLEM STATEMENT OF THE STUDY

According to Dolage and Rathnamali (2013) state that in Sri Lanka time overrun in projects has
become one of the most common problems in the industry that cause multitude of negative effects
on the projects and its stakeholders across the world.

Buys (2015) mentions that time overrun inherent part of most projects despite the much acquired
knowledge in project management. Although some may argue that this is negligible It is important to
note that physical and economic scale of projects today is such that it is driven under the platform of
profit to the parent organization, and of national interest (for government projects) by the degree of
success defined within the Iron triangle of cost, time, and scope. It is therefore much appreciated to
look at some reasons of time overrun in project and its mitigation process, so as to increase the
perception of project success.

Construction time overruns are not uncommon on construction projects world over and the South
African construction industry has not escaped the challenges of failing to deliver projects on time
says (Mukuka,2015).

Singh (2009) adds that time overruns have substantial implications from an economic and political
point of view. Due to time overruns in project implementation, the people as well as the economy
need to wait longer than is necessary for the provisions of services and public goods. Thus, time
overrun restrict the growth potential of the economy and its competitiveness.

According to Ssegwa (2013) Botswana is located in the southern part of Africa. It is a relatively large
country covering an area of 582,000 km2 with a small population of about 2.3 million inhabitants. It
is therefore a sparsely populated country .Botswana is an upper middle income country with a GDP
per capita of about USD$6530(Statistics Botswana, 2012a). The economy has grown at an average
growth rate of over 8% since independence in 1966 and is dominated by the mining sector which
contributes on average of 40% of GDP. Construction projects have been financed from revenues
obtained mainly from diamond sales. The construction sector contributed roughly 5.7 % of the GDP,
which when converted to current pricing is valued at P1 382 million.

The problem statement is that in Botswana there is failure to complete projects on time. In most
cases these projects take a longer time to be completed.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To find out the effects of time overruns on projects in Botswana

2. To determine measures that can be done to reduce the impact of time overrun in Botswana

3. To look out for the reasons time overruns take place in Botswana

SUBSEQUENT QUESTIONS

1. What are the Effects of time overruns on projects in Botswana?

2. What measures can be undertaken to reduce the impacts of time overrun on projects in
Botswana?

3. Why time overruns take place on projects in Botswana?

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REFERENCES

1. Ali, A.S. Smith, A. Pitt, M. and Choon, C.H. (2012). Contractors’ perception of factors contributing
to project delay: case studies of commercial projects in Klang Valley, Malaysia.

2. Memon A. H., Rahman I. A., Abdullah M. R. and Aziz A. A. A. 2011  Journal of

Surveying, Construction & Property  2 (Malaysia: University of Malaya) Time Overrun in
Construction Projects from the Perspective of Project Management Consultant (PMC)
54-58

3.Wong, K. and Vimonsatit, V. (2012). A study of the factors affecting construction time in Western
Australia. Scientific Research and Essays Vol. 7(40), pp. 3390-3398, 23 October, 2012: Available
online at http://www.academicjournals.org/SRE: DOI: 10.5897/SRE12.138: ISSN 1992-2248 ©2012
Academic Journals.

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