Cost Control Techniques on Civil Engineering Projects in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study assessed the effects of cost control techniques on civil engineering projects delivery in Oyo State; determined the level of awareness and implementation of cost control techniques; and examined the problems encountered by stakeholders during the implementation. These were with a view to enhancing project success.
Primary data were used for the study. These were obtained using a structured questionnaire survey to elicit information on effect of cost control techniques on civil engineering projects for successful delivery of road. The respondents comprised 11 Civil Engineers, 28 Quantity Surveyors, 3 Builders, 3 Architects project financier and 5 Project Managers, making a total of 50 respondents. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
The study established that the top four techniques with the highest extent of awareness in the delivery of civil engineering projects measured on a six Likert-scale were: Budget Monitoring, Cost Estimating and Budgeting, Controlling of cost of materials, equipment and labour and Controlling of Overheads and indirect cost with mean score of 3.88, 3.79, 3.77,
3.64 and 3.67 respectively. On the other hand, the top four techniques with highest extent of usage were: Budget Monitoring, Cost Estimating and Budgeting, Value Engineering and Controlling of cost of Materials, Equipment and Labour. The respective mean scores of these techniques were 3.67, 3.54, 3.54, 3.55 and 3.48 respectively. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, it was observed that projects that cost control techniques were implemented kept the cost of construction down and in some cases were completed within the estimated contract sum while those that did not apply cost control techniques recorded cost overrun. Similar, project that cost control techniques were implemented were completed earlier than the projected duration and some within the duration. In contrast, it was established that the four major factor challenges influencing the implementation of these techniques are unstable instability in the price of materials, Delay/Non payment of work done, Government policy, Variation, at 54%, 40%, 40% and 40% respectively.
The study concluded that the implementation of cost control techniques on civil engineering project delivers projects within budget and at the specified time.

Cost Control

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