Causes of government construction projects failure in an emerging economy: evidence from Ghana

Purpose This study investigates the factors that cause government construction projects failure in a developing. Methodology The study used sequential data collection approach through an in-depth semi-structured interview (16 participants) and questionnaire survey (230 participants) to solicit their perceptions from project management practitioners, contractors and client (government officials) about the factors that lead to Ghanaian government construction projects. The Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to determine the relative importance of the factors identified. This was followed by Spearman rank correlation coefficient and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance to measure the degree of agreement among the participants on their perceptions. Findings Thirty-four (34) factors were identified as the main factors that lead into Ghanaian government construction projects failure. The top ten (10) most important factors that cause Ghanaian government construction projects failure are: political interferences, delays in payment, partisan politics, bureaucracy, corruption, poor supervision, lack of commitment by project leaders, poor planning, starting more projects than the government can fund, and change in government. The failure factors were grouped into four main themes and found that the most important failure factors are leadership. This is followed by management and administrative practices, resources, and external forces respectively. Research limitations/implications This study is limited to only the public sector and therefore finding may not be applicable in the private sector. Practical implications Policy makers and construction project management practitioners would be able to use findings as a guide during the implementation of government projects in order to reduce and/or avoid government construction projects failure. Originality/value Construction projects failure in developing countries is high. Accordingly, extant literature has been devoted to identifying the factors that lead to failure; however, they have mainly been discussed from generic point of view or individual case studies. Researches that focus exclusively on government construction projects in developing countries are rare despite the dynamics in which these projects are implemented. This research extends the construction project management literature by focusing on government construction projects in a developing economy; where there are weak public institutional systems coupled with partisanship politics and bad cultural orientation towards government sector work inherited from colonial rule