Assessing the Causes and Consequences of Costing Public Projects’ Contracts in Cameroon: Case of Public Buildings’ Projects in Buea & Limbe, South West Region
Francis A. Fumenya
Department of Economics and Management
University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
Email: fuamenya@yahoo.co.uk
ABSTRACT
This study investigated several factors responsible for changes in the cost of construction that are associated with the direct cost elements under public projects’ contract e.g. materials labour and plants. The study relied and used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was obtained from files of projects initiated and completed between 2011 and 2016 in Buea and Limbe,South West Region, Cameroon Meanwhile, the documents studied for this purpose were bills of quantities and final accounts and reports. The secondary data was obtained through administering structured questionnaires to professionals in the industry. Simple descriptive statistics and regression techniques were used for the analysis. Building projects investigated were classified according to their functional uses as residential, commercial and institutional. Average changes in costs between estimates and final cost of these projects were 15.6%, 12.4% and 13.6% respectively. Part of the analysis showed that 46% of the contributions to the change in cost are material related while 32% are labour related and problems associated with plants and equipment contributed 22% to the change in cost. Several regressional equations for predicting final construction cost were proposed, using appropriate confidence intervals to enhance effective application of the models.
