Comparisons of Performance of Traditional And Labour-Only Procurement In Construction Projects In Nigeria

Abstract

Two procurement methods of Traditional and Labour-only are investigated and compared for performance. Labour-only procurement is recently thought to offer cheaper, better and quality projects than Traditional method for which this study is set to substantiate. Purpose of the study is to compare the two methods for performance, to find out which of the two methods is better in overall performance and also to model procurement performance. This study is a survey research that used structured questionnaires to collect data from clients, consultants and contractors in 120 recently completed construction projects that used both Traditional and Labour-only methods. Results indicate that there is no significant difference between the performances of both methods while Traditional procurement performs better than the Labour-only method. Relationship exists between client, designer, construction, procurement characteristics and overall performance of Labour-only and Traditional procurements. Implications of this study are for policy makers in government to develop their awareness on procurement performance for future projects; the proposed regression models support the procurement theory while practitioners and stakeholders should imbibe procurement performance for management of future projects. This study expands existing literature on construction procurement and it recommends Traditional procurement to clients, consultants and contractors for use in their housing projects. The regression models proposed are recommended for measuring procurement performance of completed projects. Awareness on procurement performance should be disseminated by professional bodies and other agencies involved in housing delivery for improvement of future projects.