Contractor Monitoring and Performance of Road Infrastructure Projects in Uganda: A Management Model

Abstract

An understanding of the influence of contractor monitoring on performance of road infrastructural projects in Uganda provided an impetus for this study. The objectives of the study were to: assess the relationship between contractors monitoring and performance of national road infrastructure projects and the relationship between contractor monitoring components and performance of national road infrastructure projects in Uganda. Purposive sampling was employed in selecting the procurement professionals, engineers and simple random sampling was adopted in selecting private consultants, members of parliament and respondents from the civil society organizations. Data for this study were collected using a closed ended questionnaire and interviews. Some of the major finding from this study include: weak procurement rules which lead to awarding road projects to incompetent contractors; contractor monitoring being handled by unqualified, incompetent and inexperienced professionals; lack of contractors and contract supervisors appraisal system; delay of contractors payments which affects timelines in services delivery; lack of a strong internal project monitoring and evaluation mechanism at the Uganda National Roads Agency (UNRA). The research therefore recommends the establishment of an Independent Public Infrastructure Development and Monitoring Unit by government and adoption of systems that appraise both contractors and contract supervisors with clear disciplinary actions for unsatisfactory performance by the UNRA.

Moderating Influence of Process Monitoring on the Relationship between Contractors Capacity Evaluation in Tender Award and Performance of Road Construction Infrastructural Projects

“…At the same time, not all contractors are committed to allocating adequate resources hence poor performance of roads in the post-delivery stage. This colloborates with the study findings of Byaruhanga and Basheka who established that project performance was affected by award of contracts to undeserving contractors due to weak systems of procurement; incompetence of staff involved in the procurement exercise; none existent contractor apparisal system; service delivery challenges due to delayed payments; weak internal M&E systems [60].…”

“…Their study was descriptive and therefore it lacked statistical strength to show the relationship and strength of the independent and dependent variables. Byaruhanga and Basheka in a study on contractor monitoring and road infrastructure projects performance in Uganda found that contractor monitoring is a predictor of road infrastructure projects' performance [60]. Mwangu and Iravo • demonstrated that project supervisors and contractors make use of monitoring instruments in the operations of their project, hence generating satisfactory degree of success [52].…”

“…A higher standard deviation of 0.689 compared to the composite which was 0.505 signaled divergence in opinions collected. 60 indicating that all contractors comply with regulatory bodies requires. Although this maybe true, enforcement is still an issue among some contractors when it comes to groundwork.…”

“…With a standard deviation of 0.688 above the composite of 0.505, the findings revealed that the opinions varied among the respondents. 60. This implies that most contractors do not utilize the right materials for construction and equipment to contribute to quality work in road construction.…”

Prediction of Client Support on Contractor Performance as a Critical Success Factor

“…One of the most important client support role is the payment for work done by a contractor in a project initiated by the client. Byaruhanga and Basheka observed that delay of contractors' payment affects timelines in delivery of services [25]. Ramachandra argues that the performance of the participants involved and the product output is dependent on the promptness and regularity of payment [19].…”