ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF CONSULTANTS IN PUBLIC PROJECTS IN

SOUTHERN REGION OF ETHIOPIA: A CASE STUDY IN WOLAITA ZONE

M.Sc. THESIS

BY

MILIAN MESFIN

MAY 2022
ARBA MINCH, ETHIOPIA
 ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF CONSULTANTS IN 2022
PUBLIC PROJECTS IN SOUTHERN REGION OF ETHIOPIA:

work sections, timely coordination of utility and other works by local authorities and agencies.

5. Client satisfaction related:- leadership skills for a project manager, number of disputes
between owner and project parties, speed and reliability of service to the owner, number of
rework incidents, information coordination between owner and project parties, conflict, poor
workmanship, and incompetence of workers.

6. Environmental related:- political influence from higher authority, economic influence in

terms of remuneration and allowances, social in terms of family relations, weather influence,
and level of Technological advancement.

7. Health and safety related:- reportable accidents rate in the project, application of health and
safety factors in an organization, assurance rate of the project, easiness to reach to the site
(location of the project), wastes around the site, climate condition and Air quality, noise level.

8. Innovation and learning related:- learning from own experience and history, learning from
best practices and experience of others, review of failures and solving them, workgroup,
training the human resources in the skills demanded by the project.

9. Project related - project type, project value, uniqueness of project activities, project duration,
and urgency.

2.7 The Consultant’s Performance Impact on Project Success

Project success is almost the ultimate goal for every project. Masengesho et al., (2021) stated
that project consulting is successful when consultants participated from beginning to
completion because it is a close and strong relationship between the performance of project
consultants and project success. In addition, Masengesho studied that we must have project
consultants for the successful completion of the project. Many previous types of research have
studied on performance of construction projects.

Because of poor contract administration and supervision, and a lack of commitment to

enforcing health and safety requirements, most local consultants face cost overruns, delays,
low quality, and poor health and safety practices in their projects (Nuhamin Getachew &
Dinku, 2018).

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Atout (2016) mentioned that the major factor of delays caused by the Consultant is errors and
omissions in quantities created by not effectively managing and preparing contract documents
including bills of quantities and the approved drawings. Poor appreciation of the design
management process is another factor that causes delays by the Consultant. During the work
tasks checkup process, the approval process duration of submittals and approvals of project
materials, and the technical site experience of the inspector who gets the instruction from the
Consultant resident engineer are also factors attributed to the project delay(Atout, 2016).

Khoso et al., (2019) stated that a Change order is an event that causes in addition to the original
scope, execution time, and cost of the project and has serious impacts on the performance of
the project. As a result, it leads to dissatisfaction among all contract parties in construction
projects. The change order is difficult to manage without knowing the tangible reasons for
change, which can reduce.

According to (Demisse et al., 2017) to manage successful projects, the effective management
of consultancy performance through documented feedback is essential. Due to several reasons,
exactly measuring the effects of consulting projects and the contributions of the team of
consultants is a complicated and complex task. Using effective consultant performance
management, the Department can efficiently and effectively determine the quality of services
consultant firms provide, effectively document when there is a need for improvement, and
document specific instances that require immediate resolution (Report, 2012). The success of
construction projects depends mainly on the success of performance. The project consulting
team will provide the right help at the right time to help the clients overcome current obstacles
or avoid high-level errors in the future, and determine and implement problem solutions faster,
thereby saving you time and money. Without the excellent performance of the project
consulting team, it is difficult to ensure the success of the project. Besides, to make the project
successful, the manager needs the team members effectively and efficiently complete the work
(Liphadzi et al., 2015).

2.5 Summary of Literature Review

The literature review was done through previous studies, the internet, construction
management books, and engineering journals. By referring to the previous literature, the data

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on the performance of consultants and the impacts of poor performance in the construction
industry has been observed. This was used to develop the questionnaire survey to collect data
from the targeted respondent.

Much more researchers study project performance related to time, cost, quality, client
satisfaction, health, and safety...etc. Comparatively, analyze them with globally accepted
codes of conduct and industry practices.

Construction consultants are necessary to provide gaps in knowledge and performance required
to achieve a profitable project. They help reduce risk and make sure that each part of a project
has been completed to the highest and best construction standards.

The challenges faced in the construction sector such as time overrun, poor quality, improper
health, and safety, cost overrun, poor project management, etc. have individually all
construction participants responsible. But since the consultant's role and responsibilities are
compared to other parties, as a result, the performance of the consultant has brought success
or failure effects on construction projects (Nuhamin Getachew & Dinku, 2018).

The failure of any construction project is generally associated with problems and failure in
performance. Moreover, there are numerous causes and factors, which attribute to such
problems.

The major factor of delays caused by the Consultant is errors and omission in quantities created
by not effectively managing and preparing contract documents including bills of quantities and
the approved drawings. Poor appreciation of the design management process is another factor
that causes delays by the Consultant. During the work tasks checkup process, the approval
process duration of submittals and approvals of project materials, and the technical site
experience of the inspector who gets the instruction from the Consultant resident engineer are
also factors attributed to the project delay (Atout, 2016).

According to(Khoso et al., 2019), experienced and consistent Engineering Consultants(EC) are
essential to the success of a construction project, as they could bring unaffected and everlasting
value to the client through innovative, serviceable, safe, environmentally friendly design, well-
organized budget, and program, as well as stable and easy to maintain the facility. Factors that

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affect the performance of consultants are time, cost, quality, client satisfaction, environmental,
health and safety, innovation and learning, and others.

2.5 Research Gaps

According to Masengesho et al., (2021) clients wanted consultants in Rwandan construction
industry to make it more successful through reducing and saving the overall projects life
cycle cost according to clients wishes.

The challenges that hampered quality and caused delays in various phases of consultancy
project management in Ethiopian management institute were studied by Demisse et al., (2017),
and the study asses on the consultancy project management phases like entry phase, diagnosis
phase, solution finding, implementation phase, and closure phases.

(Nuhamin Getachew & Dinku, 2018) studied that the current practice, good or bad, a
comparative analysis was conducted to identify gaps between local and global practices.
Nevertheless, the study is solely on consultants' input and it cannot identify factors that affect
consultants' performance and reasons that make consultancy unsuccessful in depth.

Many researchers studied project performance related with cost time and quality, but they
cannot relate to consultants' performance.

However, the researcher to fill the gap first assessed the present consultants performance and
how the consultants performance affected by various factors and how to improve their
performance. In addition, the performances of consultants in public projects are critical and
serious problems that greatly affect the success of projects and it was believed this study will
contribute its part in filling the research gap and inspire many more studies about the
consultancy sector of the construction industry.

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CHAPTER THREE

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1. Introduction

Methodology is a plan of action that shows how the problems are investigated, what
information are collected using which methods, and how this information will be analyzed in
order to arrive at conclusions and develop recommendations. Thus, this chapter describes
research design with a view of selecting the most appropriate methodology for the research ,
including the research strategy and justification of the methodology. The procedure used and
sampling techniques to achieve the objectives of the research methodology should reflect the
understanding of the researcher in order to extract valuable results of the study using various
methods available, in single or combination form.

3.2 Description of Study Area

The study occurred in Wolaita, Wolayta is one of the 16 Zonal Administrations of the Southern
Region In Ethiopia, located about 300 kilometers (190 mi) south of Addis Ababa. Wolaita is
limited north west by Tambaro, eastward by Bilate river which divides it from Arsi-Oromo,
Southward by Lake Abaya and Kucha, westward by Omo River. Wolaita Zone is composed of
sixteen woredas and six city administrations. There are also different towns and cities in the
Wolaita zone. Sodo town is administrative and trading center it is located at the center of roads
to and seven entering gates. The followings are urban centres in the Wolaita Zone. Sodo, Areka
, Bedessa, Beklo Segno, Bele, Bitena, Boditi, Bombe, Dalbo, Dimtu, Edo, Faracho, Gacheno,
Gara Godo, Gesuba, Gununo, Halale, Kercheche, Lasho, Sake. Based on the 2020 population
projection conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), the zone has a total
population of 5,385,782 with an area of 451,170.7 hectares (1,741.980 sq. mi).

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Figure 3-1:- Location of study area (Source: Ethiopian Mapping Agency)

3.3 Research Design

The research design is the master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting
and analyzing the needed information. The study employed a survey research design to achieve
the research aims and answer the given research questions. The researcher used questionnaire
to gather the data. The study used descriptive statistics to collecting, summarizing, and
analyzing of data, because, it is a scientific process that involves monitoring and describing a
subject's behavior without changing it. It delivers a lot of information about a specific case.

3.3. Population and Sample Size

3.3.1. Target Population

The target groups for this study are those the public construction projects located in Wolaita
zone, SNNPR. Thus, the population for this study are parties that works in public projects that
found in wolaita zone (i.e. professionals, clients, contractors, and consultants (contract
administration, supervision and regulatory)). Totally 92 buildings was found and after dividing
the building projects into strata; from which thirty representative samples were chosen. The
researcher limited the scope to thirty representative building projects in wolaita zone for the
following reasons: the project is currently under construction, data availability, and time
constraints to complete the project work limited the researcher to focus on these thirty projects.
A building construction project in wolaita zone is the subject of this case study.

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3.3.2. Sample Size

The researcher was conducted probability and non-probability sampling techniques. For target
group the researcher conducted stratified random sampling and it is the process of dividing
members of the population into homogeneous subgroups before sampling. A random sample
was drawn from all the strata. In this case, we start by dividing the population into different
strata according to their characteristics (e.g. buildings (G+0, G+1, G+2, G+3…), fence work,
and different maintenance work). Then from each of those strata, we choose a random sample
from each stratum, the final sample is the total of the samples from different strata. The former
allow non-probability or purposive/theoretical/ judgmental sampling for choosing the
professionals. In this type, the researcher based on knowledge and expertise of the subject,
selects or hand picks the professionals of the study. The respondents must be expert, to
represent the consultant’s performance study. The questionnaire, which was distributed to
each project site professionals (consultants, clients and contractors). We also spoke with
consultants, project managers, and project focal persons from owners and site engineers
currently working on each building construction project.

Consequently, out of 148 employees, 108 received a questionnaire. The response rate to the
questionnaire has been reasonable thus far, with 108responses reflecting a 96.7 percent
response rate.

As a result, the sample size was calculated using the technique devised by (Yemane T. 1967).
𝑁
n= n=148/ 1+148 (0.05)2 = 108
1+𝑁(𝑒)2

Where n: is the sample size,

N: is the population size, and

e: is the sampling error

3.4 Data Types and Sources

This research were used both primary and secondary data collection methods. Primary source
of data was obtained through the discussion and questionnaire survey with professionals
working in consultants (i.e. contract administration, supervision and regulatory), Clients, and

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contractors selected. Secondary data collected from secondary sources of data such as books,
journals, reports, and related articles from the internet. Those Secondary data sources then used
to prepare questionnaires in relation to the topic under discussion. Closed and open-ended
questionnaires prepared and distributed for all selected respondents. Documentary secondary
data will be a component of the methods of data collection. These will contain written material
such as annual reports, administrative documents, rules, legislation, acts, regulations and
meeting minutes. Analysis of these sources helps to triangulate primary-data based results.

3.5 Methods of Data Collection

This research focused on public construction projects in wolaita zone. Structured surveys and
interviews were the primary data gathering tools. The respondents were given both closed-
ended and open-ended questions to answer. The document reviews were utilized to gather
secondary data from secondary sources (project completion reports, journals, books, reports,
contract documents ...etc.). The questionnaire used in this study was based on a review of the
literature and some additional relevant questions developed with expert assistance in the topic
area. When creating the questionnaire for the current study, the researcher considered a few
key factors. The questionnaire was designed using the literature review's research goals and
theoretical recommendations.

3.5.1. Questionnaire

The goal of the survey was to gain a picture of the performance of consultants from the diverse
views of the participants. As a result, the survey, which included a questionnaire, was
conducted to find factors that affecting the performance of consultants in the implementation
of public projects to investigate the best practices (techniques) that improve consultant’s
performance for project success in public projects in the research region. Because the numbers
were manageable, Eight-page questionnaire with a cover letter was given to 108 target
populations from 30 building projects. The survey questionnaire, in the form of a Likert scale,
was used to touch on details.

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3.6 Methods of Data Analysis

Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques will be employing in this study. The
information collected through interviews, focus-group discussions, and observation about the
determinants factor documented and analyzed textually to substantiate the statistical results
from the questionnaire. After the data gathered, verified and complete questionnaire was
recognized. Then the data coded to SPSS (Statistical Package for social science) using Epi-
data software the variables and the questions asked were exported to SPSS. The data analysis
was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. IBM SPSS statistics (statistical
Package for social scientists) software version 20 was used to process the data. In general, the
collected data analyzed with the help of narration, descriptions and quotations. The quantitative
data analysis, on the other hand, will be a process of tabulating, interpreting and summarizing
empirical and numerical data for the purpose of describing or generalizing the population from
the samples. The study uses the mean and relative importance index (RII) method will be using
to rank the degree of variables under each objective and the data will be analyzed using
Microsoft Excel software and SPSS.

3.6.1. Likert Scale

Likert scales are the most commonly employed when measuring importance. These scales
presume that empirical strength is linear, that it can be assessed on a scale ranging from highly
substantial to extremely negligible, and that attitudes can be classified. A five-point Likert
scale was used in this survey.

Table 3-1:- Likert Scale

Item Very Low Low Average High Very High
Poor Needs to improve Good very good Excellent
Never Occasionally Sometimes Mostly Always
Scale
1 2 3 4 5

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3.6.2. Relative Importance Index

Once the information was gathered, it analyzed and the entire questionnaires were recognized.
After the relevant criteria have sorted in order of importance, the relative importance index
(RII) is calculated. The relative importance index (RII) approach utilized to or

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