An Evaluation of Cost Control Measures Applied to Selected Small and Medium Sized Construction Firms.
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Date
1986
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Publisher
Obafemi Awolowo University
Abstract
The research determined suitable and effective cost control measures to forestall overrun of contracts by using available resources in Nigerian small/medium sized construction firms.
The research data were derived from a survey of seven completed projects and nine selected on-going projects. The questionnaires were divided into four parts. The fit directed to client/financier/ consultants of completed projects determined whether the projects were overrun in terms of time, cost and quality.
The second directed to Head office determined cost control measures. The third to supervisors discovered material wastage on site while the fourth to site workforce collected data on labour stability. An observational technique was used to collect additional information about wastage of building materials on the site. An in-depth analysis was carried out on weather data collected from meteorological services.
The analysis of the data showed that projects overran either in terms of cost or time. The main cause of cost overrun was attributed to inflation in cost of building materials and time overrun was due to delay in stage payment by the client and bad weather.
Based on a model of different sizes of construction firms derived from literature review, observation revealed that small and medium sized construction firms could manage projects up to N250,000.00 and N2,000,000.00 respectively.
Emanating from this study, it is recommended that there should be pre-contract arrangement whereby all materiel needed for the project are purchased and kept in a store. The manufacturing of locally produced building materials should be intensified. The contractor should make use of meteorological service reports for the purpose of estimating, planning and control of construction projects. An establishment of an insurance policy bound should be encouraged to protect the contractor from client's failure to honour certificate of payment.
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Keywords
Cost control measures, construction firms
Citation
APA