DETERMINANTS OF COMPLETION OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES IN KERICHO COUNTY, KENYA

Eric Siele

M.Sc Scholar (Project Management)

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya

Dr. David Kiarie Mburu

Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya

CITATION: Siele, E., & Mburu, D. K. (2018) Determinants of Completion of Construction Projects in Government Ministries in Kericho County, Kenya. International Journal of Strategic Management. Vol. 7 (4) pp 161 – 183.

ABSTRACT

The general objective of the study was to establish the determinants of completion of construction projects in government ministries in Kericho County, Kenya.The study sought to be guided by the following specific objectives: To examine how project planning influence completion of construction projects in government ministries in Kericho County, Kenya; To establish how project management skills influence completion of construction projects in government ministries in Kericho County, Kenya; To find out how project funding influence completion of construction projects in government ministries in Kericho County, Kenya;To establish how monitoring and evaluation influence completion of construction projects in government ministries in Kericho County, Kenya. Kericho County was chosen for the study since it’s has many construction development projects being implemented by the development partners, county and national government which have failed to be completed. The study targeted 120 projects which included roads, water and housing projects. The study was built on the planning theory, Resource Based View Theory and Control Theory.The study applied a census to select all the identified project managers as the study respondents. Questionnaires were used as the primary data collection instrument. A pilot study was conducted for the data collection instrument to determine its validity and reliability of the research instruments before the actual data collection. The data was analyzed with help of SPSS.The study adopted a regression analysis at 5% level of significance to determine strength and direction of the relationship of the variables under study. It is notable that there exists strong positive relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable as shown by R value (0.799).The coefficient of determination is between zero and one. The data showed that the high R squared value of 0.638. It shows that the independent variables in the study were able to explain 63.80% variation in the completion of projects. This indicates that the set of independent variables are important factors that need to be enhanced to boost completion of construction projects in the government ministries in the study area. Based on the study findings, the study found out that project planning, project funding, project management skills and monitoring and evaluation as the major factors that mostly affect completion of construction projects in government ministries in Kenya and suggest the following recommendations. The study recommends for enhancement of project planning in the projects. There is need to develop project plans that describe the project requirement, the estimated value, details the performance method to be used, the expected project scope, budget and duration of the project. The study recommends for the project management skills to the project team to enhance completion of government projects. The planning, communication, leadership and management skills of manager should be adequate. The study recommends for the adequate M & E plans for continuous monitoring of project activities. The staff working on monitoring and evaluation should be dedicated to the function. The roles and responsibilities of monitoring and evaluation personnel should be specified at the start of the project. This study confined itself to government construction projects in Kericho County in Kenya. A comparative study should be carried out to compare whether the findings also apply for other projects in different regions in order to validate whether the findings can be generalized in Kenya. Additionally, the study did not tie the determinants as the only factors of completion of projects in government ministries Thus, there is need to undertake another research to examine the other factors which could be of influence completion projects in government ministries in Kenya.

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