Challenges of construction procurement : a developing nation's perspective

Abstract: Procurement has been identified as the link between a desire by the client for a construction project and the delivery of value products to agreed standards. Thus, it is an arrangement which define contractual processes, funding patterns, risk allocation, work structure and relationship amongst parties on a project. There is sufficient evidence in literature that procurement of public works in developing nations has failed to deliver necessary infrastructure required for economic development of these nations. Particularly in Nigeria, much resources have been committed to the delivery of infrastructure projects but limited benefits have been obtained. This research entails an exploratory qualitative study into the challenges of construction procurement in Nigeria. The study uses an interview of construction industry professionals who were purposively sampled to identify factors mitigating effective construction procurement. Findings from the study show that improper implementation of legislative framework, funding, corruption, hostile operating environment, inadequate knowledge of practitioners of procurement methods and unstable economic environment are factors affecting public procurement in Nigeria. The study concludes that for construction procurement to meet the need of delivering necessary infrastructure for economic development in a nation like Nigeria, intrinsic issues within the national environment have to be handled by relevant stakeholders. Keywords: Construction, Procurement, Developing Nations, Infrastructure, Challenges