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:

2.3. Concept of Construction Project Performance

Performance is the achievement of a given project compared to the contractual cost, time,
and standard quality (Tagesse, 2017). A construction project is commonly acknowledged as
successful, when it is completed on schedule and within the planned budget, with the highest
quality and in the safest method, by the specifications and to participants’ satisfaction.
According to Choi et al., (2016) the functionality to a client; profitability to contractors, lack
of claims and court proceedings, and appropriateness for the objective for occupiers are used
as measures of project success. For any public or private construction firm, advancement of
the project performance is taken as one of their main objectives. This can accomplish by,
finishing projects on schedule, and increasing quality. Public construction projects in
Ethiopia are part of the country’s development initiative. It shares a large amount of the
country’s scarce financial resources. In Ethiopia, the construction industry is the highest
recipient of the government budget in terms of the annual rate of nearly 60% of the
government’s capital budget (Housing & Development, 2018).

2.4. Factors Affecting Performance of Construction Project

Many construction projects have problems in their performance (i.e. roads, buildings, and
water supply projects that are executed by small and medium-scale local contractors).
Through the construction project cycle, there are several activities in each important phase to
accomplish the project goal because of many factors which affect the successful completion
of the project, especially time, cost, and quality of the projects(Tagesse, 2017).

(Iyer & Jha, 2005) identified project cost performance influenced by several factors; these
include the project manager's competence, top management support, project manager's
coordinating and leadership skills, monitoring and feedback by the participants, decision-
making, and coordination among project participants, owners' competence, social condition,
economic condition, and climatic condition. Coordination among project participants,
however, it identified as the most significant of all the factors, having a maximum influence
on cost performance.

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According to (Henok Asrat Advisor & Mohamed, 2020) lack of experience, spent time for
approval of test and inspection, incomplete design at the time of tender, lack of quality
control, and complicated specifications are consultant-related factors that affect cost and
time.

2.5. Consultants performance in the Different Construction phases

The consultant is the employer’s agent. Liphadzi et al., (2015) indicated that the reasons we
need project consultants to advise on the construction project process, to improve the quality
of the project products in the present and future, to enhance professionalism, to identify
project problems, and raise real answers to solutions to them. In addition, to reduce and save
the overall project’s life cycle cost according to the client’s wishes, to set project goals by
giving different instructions. In addition, to remove major variations that affect construction
projects with their attendant cost overrun, to enhance sustainable construction projects, to
keep the time of the construction project, to enhance reliability, availability, and client during
the project starting process until the project. Finally, consultants recommended facilitating
and accelerating orders provided to contractors to obtain better time performance and reduce
disputes and claims.

Masengesho et al., (2021) Project consultants have more understanding of project budgets,
project time, and all resources necessary for the project due to their skills, knowledge, and
experience to manage projects correctly and clearly. The project was completed to the right
quality against technical specifications and design standards, on time and within budget
certified by consultants, i.e. gives the Employer Value for Money. According to FIDIC IV,
the main duties of the Consultant are reviewing and updating design, monitoring the
contractor’s operations to ensure timely commencement of operation, reviewing the
contractor’s program, carrying out quality control tests reviewing the contractor’s monthly
invoices, and certifying for payment, evaluating all claims for additional payment and
applications for extension of time and Preparing monthly, quarterly, and annual progress
reports.

A review of the previous study shows that the responsibility of management consultants may
include some of the roles mentioned below (Sarda & Dewalkar, 2016). Within the planned

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time, quality, and budget, carry out preliminary and effective planning of the entire project
and ensure that projects and related activities are completed. Providing guidelines frequently
to contractors, organizing intervallic meetings to review the progress of work, assigning
responsibilities to team members, supervising all the project management teams' continuous
planning, forecasting, and rescheduling of various activities, monitoring different phases of
construction, certifying the quality of each phase of work, advise on the type of
subcontractors, and providers for the project.

according to diligence, accountability, and extreme focus reside

(https://daegroupllc.com/construction-consulting) construction consultant's advice. They pull
from their nice experience, industry understanding, and problem-solving abilities to offer
valuable advice to developers and investors of construction projects. They offer strategic and
tactical advice like “do-it-for-you” services. Every construction consultants help clients make
complete preparations for their future projects and ensure that contractors complete the
project scheduled cost. Consultants resolve differences between contractors and project
owners and provide cost estimates, draw budgets, select contractors, administer contracts,
and. Construction consultants are required to reduce the risk and performance required to
achieve a profitable project and provide gaps in knowledge.

Associated with the lack of knowledge and expertise on part of the responsibility clients and
contractors take their fair share in contributing to these problems in the industry. The fact that
they are at a vital advantage when it comes to making professional calls, unlike the client
who usually does not have experience in construction, has a higher jurisdiction to control,
guide the construction works, and make sure the contractor performs acceptably. a
contractual, legal, professional, and ethical responsibility Consultants make sure that
construction projects conform to quality requirements, standards, and professional
expectations (Nuhamin Getachew & Dinku, 2018). According to Masengesho et al., (2021)
with their expert knowledge and aptitude, for a long time, the project consultants have been
undertaking several tasks in the construction project. A successful project consultant should
execute several roles and responsibilities at the same time, and play a vital role in all phases
of the construction project (the planning phase, design phase, procurement (bid) phase,

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construction phase, and post-construction phase). The roles and responsibilities of project
consultants in different project phases (Nikumbh & Pimplikar, 2014)

2.5.1 Initial phase

In this phase, consultants deeply know clients' needs and they could have done Feasibility
studies and plans; identify stakeholders who may power project decisions, actions, and
outcomes; record information about stakeholders including welfare, involvement, impact,
and the potential result on the achievement of the project; availability of the innovative and
alternative solution.

2.5.2 Design phase

In this phase, review design concepts, final drawings, documents, and specifications; quality
of drawing, and coordinate the design procedure; so, that they can provide the project
following proven stakeholders and/or client needs.
2.5.3 Procurement(bid) phase

In this phase, quality of bidding documents; contractor qualification; bid assessment; quality
report on returned bids; describe the project; project management; design procedure
management; set maintainable progress goals; deliver project cost estimations; approach to
cost-effectiveness; set timelines for the integrated project teams.

2.5.4 Construction phase

In this phase, supervision and administration of project quality and time; administration of
contract; financial control of contract; information management; team coordination;
supervision of contractor; site and design management; safety and health management;
coordination with customers, architects, and other consultants; procurement management;
handling of claims; control opportunities of risk for avoiding the increase of costs; and
control the additional series.
2.5.5 Post-construction phase
In this phase, packing and closing technical and financial, previous cost reports; quality of as-
built drawings and records; settlement of outstanding claims; Settlement of final account;

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And providing clients and end-users with construction documents associated with
Maintenance and drawing up a list of defects.

2.6 Factors Affecting Performance of Consultants

Clients want consultants for managing the project's underlying time and budget throughout
project goals from the beginning to end of the projects to meet the client's needs (Liphadzi et
al., 2015).

According to(Khoso et al., 2019a), the success of the construction project is dependable on
the experience and consistency of consultants, because they could bring unaffected and
everlasting values 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. The most fundamental causes are Variation, ambiguities in the contract
documents, late information delivery, over-measurement and under-measurement of work by
consultants to work in progress, design and specification oversight, error or omissions
resulting from uncoordinated civil structural, and architectural (Ekhator, 2016). Factors
affecting the performance of consultants (Enshassi et al., 2009; Masengesho et al., 2021):-

1. Related to management of project: adequate technical background, poor relationship

among team members, ability to coordinate, ability to take decisions when necessary,
competence of the team, ability to delegate authority, ability to work as a team.

2. Related to cost management: accurate and reliable budget estimate, ability to foresee and
budget for potential inflation, excessive variation orders, reworks, prompt in issuing
certificates, proper planning, and scheduling of works, creativity in controlling own cost and
developing own efficiencies.

3. Related to quality of work:- design team experience, delay in producing design documents,
adequate service test records, adequate material test records, excessive variation orders,
excessive errors or omission, and reworks.

4. Time related:- coordination of contractors’ work promptly, timely decision making, timely
submission of reports, payment certification, and claims, time for completing major specified

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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,

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low quality, and poor health and safety practices in their projects (Nuhamin Getachew &
Dinku, 2018).

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).

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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
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).

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

2.6 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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