RELIABILITY ISSUES AND IMPROVEMENT OF PRELIMINARIES COST RELATED ITEMS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING CONVENTIONAL CONTRACTS

ABDUL AZIZ ABAS, FARIDAH ISMAIL, ZULHABRI ISMAIL

Abstract


Civil engineering is a professional discipline that deals with built environment involving physical construction of man-made structures such as roads, rails, bridges, drainage, water supply, geotechnical, and services. It also contracts with soft skills such as maintenance, research and investigation, conservation, and planning. In Malaysia, it is prerogative that civil engineers administer civil engineering contracts. The preliminaries are an integral part of the bill of quantities and difficult to price due to its nature. However, the contractor is expected to price all items fully. The engineer prepares the preliminaries but the risk and liabilities are ultimately transferred to the contractor notwithstanding the reliability of the bill itself.  As such, the reliability of preliminaries is of the utmost concern. The research focused on the improvement of the reliability of the Preliminaries. The aim is to improve the effectiveness of present preliminaries in Civil Engineering conventional contracts. The objectives are, (1) To investigate the existing cost items consideration and strategic approaches, (2) To improve the criteria of cost-related item components and expand its potential strategies. This paper considered previous research findings and highlighted the issues and problems related to the fallacy of the subject. Based on an initial exploratory survey (N=19), it was obvious that the issues of reliability of preliminaries exist. The research proceeded with a mass survey (N=270) of stratified data sampling involving Malaysian civil engineering contractors class G7 CE21, civil engineering consultants and developers. The survey used Likert scales of 1 being “Strongly Disagree” to 5 being “Strongly Agree”.The analysis was predominantly using SPSS statistics. The results conspicuously exposed the issues with the weaknesses of present practices (M=3.579, SD=0.927). The improvement of the present practices’ criteria expected to increase the reliability of preliminaries. As a way forward, the improved criteria provide better clarity, accuracy, and transparency to engineers and contractors as well as other construction players in general. Reliable preliminary items improve price accuracy for the betterment of the construction industry.

Keywords


conventional contract, civil engineering contract, preliminaries, tender accuracy

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abas, A. A. (2016). Variation in Price of Preliminaries in Construction Projects During Tender Stage. Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia. http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.22334.59206

Abas, A. A., Arshad, R. A., & Ismail, Z. (2017). Challenges of Accurate Estimation in Preliminaries of Construction Projects. Advanced Science Letters, 23(4), 2970–2973(4). http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1166/asl.2017.7622

Abas, A. A., Ismail, Z., Ismail, F., & Arshad, R. A. (2017a). Bills of Preliminaries ’ Pricing Trends for Malaysian Civil Infrastructure Works in Conventional Contract.

Abas, A. A., Ismail, Z., Ismail, F., & Arshad, R. A. (2017b). Cost of Preliminaries of Construction Projects for Civil Infrastructure Works. Sains Humanika, 9(2), 9–13. http://doi.org/10.11113/sh.v9n2.1032

Aderinto, F. (2010, February). Administration of project preliminaries. Construction Week Online.Com.

Adnan, H., & Nawawi, A. (2011). Bills of Quantities: Perspectives of Contractor in Malaysia. Journal of Applied …, 5(11), 863–873.

Ajay, S., & Micah, B. (2014). Sampling Techniques & Determination of Sample Size in Applied Statistics Research : an Overview. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, II(11), 1–22.

Atkinson, R., Crawford, L., & Ward, S. (2006). Fundamental uncertainties in projects and the scope of project management. International Journal of Project Management, 24(8), 687–698. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.011

Austroads. (2014). Building and Construction Procurement Guide Principles and Options. Sydney: Austroads Ltd.

Azman, M. A., Abdul-Samad, Z., & Ismail, S. (2013). The accuracy of preliminary cost estimates in Public Works Department (PWD) of Peninsular Malaysia. International Journal of Project Management, 31(7), 994–1005. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.11.008

Bandi, S. (2016). Bills of Quantities : Raison d ’ etre ? Academia, 2, 1–15.

Bertram, D. (2006). Likert Scales: CPSC 681—Topic Report. Poincare. http://doi.org/10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0508

Bulpitt, C. J. (1987). Confidence Intervals. The Lancet, 329(8531), 494–497. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(87)92100-3

Chan, K. H. (2016). Shortage of Engineers and What That Means in Construction Disputes. Retrieved from http://khenghoe.com/shortage-of-engineers-and-what-that-means-in-construction-disputes/

CIDB. (2018). MYCESMM2 - A Guide to Malaysian Civil Engineering Standard Method of Measurement. In Malaysian Civil Engineering Standard Method of Measurement Second Edition (Second, pp. 24–30). Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB).

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Routledge Academic (Second Ed.). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Columbia University. (2016). What is civil engineering? Retrieved from http://civil.columbia.edu/what-civil-engineering

Cunningham, T. (2014). Contractors ’ Claims for Loss and Expense under the Principle ‘ Traditional ’ Forms of Irish Building Contract.

Cunningham, T. (2016). The Function and Format of Bills of Quantities : an Irish Context. Dublin.

Frazer, M. (2012). Australia : Early contractor involvement in preliminary design process of construction projects. Retrieved from http://www.mondaq.com/australia/x/174524/Building+Construction/Ea?volvement+in+preliminary+design+process+of+construction+projects Page

Gebreab, H. (2016). Tender Cost Preparation. Academia, 11.

Ghani, N. A. (2006). The importance of preliminaries items. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Gordon, S. (2006). The normal distribution. Sydney: University of Sydney.

Gunathilaka, A. A. U. S. A. U. S., & Senevirathne, L. D. I. D. I. P. (2013). Common Errors That Are Being Made In Preparing And Pricing BOQ In Sri Lanka Construction Industry. In The second world construction symposium 2013: Socio-economic sustainability in construction (Vol. 20021, pp. 93–100). Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Haruna, A. C., Mohammed, A., & Buba, G. S.-P. (2017). Appraising Contractors’ Perception of Pricing Preliminaries of Housing Projects in Kaduna, Nigeria. FUW Trends in Science & Technology Journal, 2(2), 1008–1012.

Hesami, S., & Lavasani, S. A. (2014). Identifying and Classifying Effective Factors Affecting Overhead Costs in Constructing Projects in Iran. International Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 3(1), 24–41. http://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20140301.03

Israel, G. D. (1992). Determining Sample Size. University of Florida, IFAS Extension, PE0D6(April 2009), 1–5. http://doi.org/10.4039/Ent85108-3

Ji, C., Mbachu, J., & Domingo, N. (2014). Factors Influencing the Accuracy of Pre- Contract Stage Estimation of Final Contract Price in New Zealand. International Journal of Construction Supply Chain Management, 4(2), 51–64. http://doi.org/10.14424/ijcscm402014-51-64

Jimoh, R. A., & Adama, S. M. (2011). Assessment of preliminaries in relation to the total cost of renovation work in public schools in Abuja , Nigeria. In ICEC IX World Congress Assessment (pp. 1–9).

Kammer, H. S. (2012). Pricing Preliminaries. Retrieved from https://hansenkammer.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/pricing-preliminaries/

Keng, T. C. (2016). Costing for The Preliminaries Section of The Construction. In M. F. A. Ayob & M. S. Ibrahim (Eds.), Cost and Contract Administration in Construction, Devine Perspectives (Vol. 1, pp. 24–29). Kuala Lumpur: IIUM Press.

Lucas, J. (2014). What is civil engineering? Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/47612-civil-engineering.html

Nahel, K. A. EL. (2014). What Are Preliminaries in Construction Contracts ? How to Use Preliminary Costs in Claims.

Nizam Akbar, A. R., Mohammad, M. F., Ahmad, N., & Maisyam, M. (2015). Adopting Standardization in Construction Environment : Standard method of measurement ( SMMs ). Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 170, 37–48. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.013

Rindskopf, D., & Shiyko, M. (2010). Measures of Dispersion, Skewness and Kurtosis. International Encyclopedia of Education. New York: Elsevier Ltd. http://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-044894-7.01344-0

Tak, C., Chan, W., & Pasquire, C. (2002). Estimation of Project Overheads : a Contractor ’ S Perspective. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 1(September), 53–62.

The Entrusty Group. (2009). What are Preliminaries and How to Evaluate Them ? Master Builders Journal, 1, 80–90.

The Malaysian Reserve [TMR]. (2018, October). CIDB says make MyCESM mandatory. The Malaysian Reserve.

Tower, M., & Baccarini, D. (2012). Risk Pricing in Construction Tenders - How, Who, What. The Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building, 7(2), 12–25. http://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v8i1.2997

Turner & Townsend. (2016). International construction market survey 2016.

Turner & Townsend. (2017). International construction market survey 2017. DuBao. http://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-81-2014

Turner & Townsend. (2018). International construction market survey 2018.

Vera, S. M. (2013). Differences Between Architecture, Civil Engineering And Building Engineering World Wide. Universitat Politecnica De Valencia, Spain.

Watson Wyatt Worldwide. (n.d.). Level Guides , Position Descriptions and Global Grades. Charlottesville.

Yanqiu, L. I., & Hong, K. E. (2016). Research on Adjustment of Preliminaries Caused by New Work Sections And Trades added in list. In 2nd International Conference on Education Technology, Management and Humanities Science (ETMHS 2016) Research (pp. 170–174). Atlantis Press.

Yi, T. S. (2010). A study Into preliminaries for the construction project in Setapak, Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur. INTI International University.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.