Barriers affecting the implementation of Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) practices for RDP projects in Mpumalanga Province

Globally, the built environment professional is clamouring for sustainable built environment. Till date it seems a daunting task. With this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers affecting the implementation of Post Occupancy Evaluation Practices for RDP project in Mpumalanga Province South Africa. The study employed a quantitative approach in which a questionnaire survey was used in the collection of data. The first step involved the identification of the barrier’s factors through extensive literature review, thereafter a questionnaire survey was conducted. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the collected data. The mean internal consistency of the identified data was assessed using Cronbach's alpha to gauge the reliability of the questionnaire. The ranking of each item and its significant relative index with respect to other barriers that were identified were then determined by computing the Mean Item Score (MIS). The study suggests that the barriers that affect the effective implementation of the POE are; POE is not integrated in the scope of work of facility management; Lack of support from the municipal authorities for POE programs; Lack of suitable industry guides/standards for conducting POE; Lack of progress towards POE; Lack of support from top/senior management; Lack of owner’s knowledge on the potential benefits of POE; Inaccessibility of relevant documents needed for conducting POE; POE exclusion from professional curricula; Long term owning and operating costs; management preference to increase income at the expense of POE; Limitations of POE in the total assessment of building’s performance and lack of knowledge on POE procedures and processes were some of the challenges obtained from the study. Arguably, this study strives to understand the barriers to effective implementation of POE so as to create awareness on the need and to create an enabling environment that will promote the implementation of POE across the country. In addition, the study recommends that government and its officials should devise means to include financial budget for POE; sets standard for POE implementation and support POE programme for RDP project. This will lead to performance improvement and industry competitiveness at large.