Causes And Effects Of Delays And Cost Overruns On Public Building Projects In Tanzania

The problem of delays and cost overruns in construction industry is a global phenomenon. Tanzania is among the country with the same challenge. Delays in construction is defined as late completion of activities which extend beyond the contract scheduled duration of the project.most of tanzania public projects completed beyond the time scheduled. Cost overruns is considered also as the major problem in construction projects. Time extension is ussually results in delays and cost overruns. The loss of resources( time, money and manpower) to the government and society in general is likely to occur, due to this challenge academicians, politicians,and const ruction industry stakeholders have become increasingly aware to make sure the project is completed within time,budgeted and at the highest quality intended.The main objective of this research was to analys and asses the causes of delays and cost overruns and their effects upon completion of projects, the objective was achieved. The questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain the views and percption from clients, consultants and contractors on the causes which influence delays and cost overruns and its effects in public building projects.the questioonaire was distributed to the targeted population, about 99 respondents perticipated in the survey. A total of(34) factors identified for delays and(16) factors of cost overruns, and(7) major effects of d elays and cost overruns were anlyszed based on the descriptive statistics and the relative importance indices. the most significant causes of delays according to their relative importance index were:(1) Bureaucracy in government agencies(public clients),(2)Owner delay in freeing the contractor financial payments,(3)Building regulations often changing,(4)Unrealistic contract durations imposed by owner,(5) Clients? cash flow problem,(6) Poor project management by client,(7)Social economical related fact ors ie inflation, government policies etc,(8)Clients? slow decision making,(9) Unrealistic owners initial requirements. T he magnitude of these factors were obtained by empirical analysis based on Relative importance indices.Also the most important causes of cost overruns were obtained from all respondents The top(10) most important factors were as follows: Resources constraint: funds, material and manpower, Change of the scope of works on the project, Design changes during construction process, Incomplete design at tendering stage, Design changes during construction process, Unpredictable weather conditions i.e. excessive rainfall, earth quakes, soil conditions etc, Additional of works by clients request, Delaying of issuing information from consultant to the contractor, Lack of experience of technical personnel in the field i.e. engineers, architects and quantity surveyors and Fluctuations and of building materials in the market and shortage of material. The time ov erruns and cost overruns were the the most effects of delays found in Tanzania construction public project. The research recommended that in order to minimize delays and cost increase the following should be kept in attention: the financial aspect in the p roject should be well organized and maintained since the most important factors are cash related causes, allowing reasonable time for the design team to produce clear, understanding and complete contract documents; having a clearly written contract with no ambiguity by using special provisions and practices that have been used successfully on past projects; and developing cooperative and problem solving attitudes on projects through a risk-sharing between the owner, the consultant and contractors.