Statistical Study on Types, Causes, Effects and Remedies of Corrupt Practices in Construction Industries in Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examined the issues of corruption in Nigeria by identifying the various corrupt and fraudulent practices that exist in Nigeria Construction Industry. It also examined the different job stages where corruption is common within the industry, involvement of professionals, obstacles to exposing corrupt practices, effects of corrupt practices and solutions to corrupt practices in the construction industry. A total of 1500 questionnaires were administered using a web-survey. Professionals in the industry and construction managers were respondents of the survey. A simple statistical tool such as mean, standard deviation and importance index were used to analyze the result. It was observed from the analysis that the major causes of corrupt practices center around the absence of punishment for corruption, economic recession, competitive bidding and loss of contract money due to change in government. The leading examples of corruption practiced in the construction industry are bribery, extortion and employment of unqualified or quacks. The obstacles faced by employees to reporting corrupt practices are fear of appointment termination imposed by the employer, awareness that the whistleblower is not well secured and lack of assurance in anticorruption agencies. The major effects of corrupt practices are poor quality construction of infrastructure and low economic returns. Remedies according to analysis were good and adequate supervision, use of standard materials, and involvement of professional builders in the construction process, proper soil investigation, and discipline of professionals if proven to be involved.

Barriers to unethical and corrupt practices avoidance in the construction industry

“…Poor information documentation, inadequate accountability in the eligibility requirements for bidders, poor organisational moral principles, and other variables have been linked to corrupt practices in the building sector (Le et al, 2014). Therefore (Adekunle, 2019) states that unethical practices in the construction industry have generated debate among citizens because of their prevalence, thereby making the economies of countries crawl. The findings imply that despite the ethical code of conduct instituted by the government and professional bodies to reduce unethical practices and reduce corrupt activities, the problem persists, thus rendering these Barriers to unethical practices avoidance efforts ineffective.…”

“…Corrupt practices have been a key and unrelenting stumbling block to construction industries trying to achieve sustainable social and financial growth. It has become a general debate among citizens because of its prevalence within various sectors, making the economy crawl (Adekunle, 2019). The source of an organisation's ethical failure can sometimes be attributable to its corporate culture and leadership's inability to encourage ethical standards (Mason, 2008).…”

“…In general, corruption in society is not well understood until these pertinent issues are mentioned (Adekunle, 2019). Recognising corruption will facilitate the integration of ethical topics in tertiary training and education curriculum content, special development workshops given by trade associations and industry leaders, strengthening procurement processes for construction, and more forensic detection systems (Bowen et al, 2012).…”

Effect of anti-corruption systems’ logic on corruption manifestations in project planning and execution in Nigeria

“…This study is significant because it will aid in the identification of anti-corruption strategies that are typically feasible, significant, and compelling. The classification of the construction sector as the one with the highest level of corruption (Maruichi and Abe, 2019;Adekunle, et al, 2019) emphasises the importance of this investigation.…”

City-wide Quality Assessment of Sandcrete Masonry Blocks Produced in Lagos, Ibadan and Abeokuta Metropolitan-cities in South-western Nigeria

“…Also, as is the case in many developing countries, the construction industry in Nigeria is facing several problems including quackery, corruption [33] and relatively high casualty & fatality rates [such as building collapse occurrences/cases] during construction [34]. Also, in many African countries like Nigeria, the regulators and stakeholders in the construction sector are presently faced with the several challenges including the erection of sandcrete block buildings in unplanned or poorly planned settlements [35], and many of which are annually affected by devastating floods [36].…”