Determinants of Projects Delay in Dire Dawa Administration the Case of Government Owned Construction Projects

The main objective of this study was to examine determinants of construction projects delay in Dire Dawa Administration. In doing so, the researcher employed dominantly quantitative research approach since the contribution of each of the factors to overall delays was examined and the ranking of the attributes in terms of their criticality as perceived by the respondents were done by use of Relative Importance Index (RII). Moreover, both descriptive and explanatory (causal research) research designs via cross-sectional survey were utilized for this study in order to satisfy the objective of the thesis. The study used both primary and secondary data. Census method of inquiry was employed through distributing 102 a self-administered questionnaire to clients/government bureaus, contractors and consultants of large government owned construction projects. Relative Importance Index technique, one way ANOVA, ordinal logistic regression model and chi-square test were used as data analysis tools. the descriptive statistics result revealed that delay in manufacturing special building materials (RII=0.81), delays in producing design documents (RII=0.8), low productivity level of labors (RII=0.8), inadequate contractor’s work (RII=0.78),shortage of equipment (RII=0.78), changes in material types and specifications during construction (RII=0.75), equipment breakdowns (RII=0.75),misunderstanding of owner’s requirements by design engineer (RII=0.75), mistakes and discrepancies in design documents RII=0.74) delay in material delivery (RII=0.74) were the top five perceived causes of large construction projects in DDA. Moreover, the ordinal logistic regression showed that Organizational planning, Project manager goal commitment, Project team motivation and goal orientation, Project scope and work definition, Project managers’ capability and experience, the availability of proper control systems have a statistically significant influence on project delay and those antecedents caused 81% of large construction projects delay in Dire Dawa Administration. As a result, reconsideration should be due on the designing and construction projects planning to find out why it is harming the likelihood of timely project completion in which stakeholders such as owners, consultants and contractors have clearly define the goal i.e. establishing the needs of the stakeholders by interviewing or having consolidated meetings, prioritizing stakeholders needs and create a set of goals that can be easily measured