Browsing by Author "Chigangacha, Progress Shingai."

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Assessing South African public sector maturity to implement the infrastructure delivery management system (IDMS).
(2020) Chigangacha, Progress Shingai.; Haupt, Theodore Conrad.; Awuzie, Bankole Ositadinma.
Infrastructure is the fulcrum of a strong economy. It can be considered as the backbone of every economy as it directly impacts on some elements of expansive socio-economic development which contribute to economic growth and development thereby increasing societal value and quality of life. Undoubtedly, infrastructure is critical and a prerequisite for economic growth and power. Likewise, the paucity of and lack thereof of adequate infrastructure impedes national growth and development. For most developing countries, there are large infrastructural deficits and the infrastructure gap is large, with infrastructure delivery being characterized by slow progress and development. South Africa too is fraught with a myriad of challenges affecting infrastructure delivery and this has seen the South African government prioritizing and scaling up expenditure on infrastructure to support its economic growth and development plans. In recent years, the South African government has made remarkable progress to support its economic growth and development plans and introduced recent enabling legislation and guidelines, in the process reducing poverty and inequality. However, it is still plagued with tremendous backlogs and shortfalls due to considerable bottlenecks, as a result of several systemic challenges that inhibit the effective delivery of infrastructural installations, the causes of which have not necessarily been identified or understood. Furthermore, there is severe persistence of infrastructure challenges facing the South African landscape despite numerous government interventions to scale up infrastructure delivery. The Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS), a government model formulated to ameliorate infrastructure delivery has not been adequately utilized so as to achieve its full effectiveness and efficiency. This could potentially be emanating from deficiencies in institutional capacities and capabilities and the lack of organizational readiness to utilize this model. Suffice to note is the reality that the challenges of infrastructure in South Africa are not primarily attributed to lack of funding but are as a result of institutional failures and a lack of requisite capacity within the Public sector Against this background, this study aimed primarily to develop and validate a maturity model for assessing and improving public sector organizations’ readiness for effective IDMS implementation. Upon model development and validation, the study assessed the maturity of provincial government departments in engaging with the extant IDMS and it formulated evidence based interventions to improve delivery and management of infrastructure projects. This was achieved through analysis of data obtained from the use of a nine-dimension Maturity Modelling Questionnaire and semi-structured Interviews. The results obtained were used to indicate Organizational Maturity on a 5-level scale where Level 1 is the initial/adhoc level which is indicative of a regressive organization with a complete lack of attributes and Level 5 is indicative of an optimized organization with world class attributes. An IDMS ready organization would ideally have a maturity rating at level 5. This study found that all three organizations that were surveyed had a maturity rating 3
Effectiveness of client involvement in construction projects : a contractor perspective.
(2016) Chigangacha, Progress Shingai.; Haupt, Theodore Conrad.
construction sector in South Africa is a significant contributor to employment opportunities and economic growth. In the year 2013 alone, R262 billion was spent within the industry. Despite the huge spending, a report by the Construction Industry Development Board indicated that some clients remained dissatisfied with the project outcomes. This was demonstrated after a survey conducted in 2011 found that clients were generally neutral or dissatisfied with the quality of construction on around 20% of all projects, and around 12% of the projects that were surveyed had levels of defects which are regarded as inappropriate. Clients have been argued to be the most important construction industry participants as they initiate and fund the construction process from inception to completion. Therefore, business in the construction industry is about fulfilling client satisfaction. Client satisfaction has been linked to the level of client involvement and control in construction projects. Inadequate level of client involvement, especially during many of the most critical project activities has led to problems experienced on construction projects, some of which hinder project success. These problems include but are not limited to construction disputes, uncertainties in plans and specifications, and delays in giving the contractor vital information or instructions. While effective client involvement in their construction projects is important to achieve a successful project, contractors perceive their involvement as being too low resulting in unsatisfactory project delivery. Therefore, this research aimed to examine the role and effectiveness of client involvement on construction projects from the perspective of contractors. The study investigated the nature of the client, and their involvement in construction projects, at the same time ascertaining how this involvement could impact on the project outcomes, and assessing to what extent a client should be involved in the construction process. The study also assessed whether early client involvement and trust and co-operation between the client and contractor facilitated project success. Based on analysis of data gathered via questionnaire surveys from 101 contractors, 18 consultants and 19 clients, it was found that the significant and dominant usage of the traditional procurement method by both public and private sector clients in South Africa can be confirmed. It was also found that although alternative procurement methods were not widely adopted in South Africa, the private sector was more open and flexible in utilising them, with the next most used methods being the design and build and negotiation. Contractors placed great importance on project stakeholder relations which could be attributed to the shortcomings of the traditional method, which include but are not limited to adversarial relations and high occurrence of misunderstandings and conflicts. Issues of trust, honesty and cooperation in the context of clients underpinned project stakeholder relations and were regarded as vital for project success. In terms of client involvement, this study found that contractors regarded private sector clients to be more frequently involved in their projects than public sector clients. Furthermore, although optimum client involvement across all the project phases is crucial for project success, contractors regarded the pre-construction phase to be a priority phase for client involvement, followed by the post construction phase. The study recommends that public sector clients should be more flexible to adopt the most suitable procurement method instead of relying on the traditional procurement method which might not necessarily be the most appropriate. Alternative procurement arrangements may allow for greater and earlier client involvement in their construction projects.