Search results

Effective procurement of infrastructure is linked to the attainment of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations. While the capacity of organisations is generally thought to be related to organisational performance, there is a lack of empirical insights concerning the contribution of procurement capacity of public organisations towards the attainment of procurement objectives in infrastructure procurement. Thus, it is unclear which aspects of the capacity of public procurement organisations contribute the most to the attainment of procurement objectives in the procurement of infrastructure. This research sought to address this gap.

The research used a survey of public procurement professionals which yielded 590 responses.

Exploratory factor analysis of 23 organisational capacity items revealed three components of organisational procurement capacity: “management of the procurement process”; “human and physical resources”; and “financial resources and management”. Multiple regression modelling of the relationship between the components and the attainment of 12 procurement objectives further reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between the three components and all the objectives. However, “management of the procurement process” emerged as the greatest contributor to the attainment of seven objectives, whereas “human and physical resources”, and “financial resources and management” were the greatest contributor to the attainment of one objective and four objectives, respectively.

The study provides strong empirical justification for investment in the development of procurement capacity of public agencies involved in procurement of infrastructure. Furthermore, procurement capacity development of specific capacity components can be prioritised based on the relative contribution of capacity components to the attainment of desired procurement objectives. This should be useful to government policymakers as well as multilateral organisations that fund infrastructure and procurement reforms in various countries.

The achievement of sustainable development goals is linked to the procurement of public infrastructure in a manner that meets key procurement objectives, such as sustainability, value-for-money, transparency and accountability. At the heart of achieving these procurement objectives and others is the capacity of public procurement institutions. Whereas previous reports have hinted that there are deficiencies in procurement capacity in Nigeria, insights regarding critical aspects of organisational capacity deficiencies among different tiers of government agencies is limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical gaps in the procurement capacity of state and local government agencies involved in the procurement of public infrastructure in Nigeria.

The study employed a survey of public infrastructure procurement personnel which yielded 288 responses.

Among 23 operationalised items that are related to organisational procurement capacity, none is perceived to be adequate by the procurement personnel. Additionally, among 14 procurement objectives only 1 is perceived as being attained to at least a high extent.

The findings underscore the acuteness of organisational procurement capacity weaknesses among public procurement institutions within Nigeria’s governance structure. It is, thus, imperative for policy makers within state and local government to formulate, resource and implement procurement capacity building initiatives/programmes to address these deficiencies. Additionally, the organisational procurement capacity items operationalised in this study could serve as a useful blueprint for studying capacity deficiencies among public infrastructure procurement agencies in other developing countries, especially within sub-Saharan Africa where several countries have been implementing public procurement reforms.

Work on construction sites involves individuals with diverse character, temperament,age, physical strength, culture, religion and experience level. A good number of these individuals are also alleged to involve themselves in substance and alcohol abuse due to the physically demanding nature of their work. These could promote the prevalence of violence on construction sites which could in turn affect safety on construction sites. However, there is a lack of empirical insight into the effect of violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour on construction sites. This study therefore pioneers an empirical inquiry into the relationship between violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour on construction sites.

Seventeen violent behaviours and 15 unsafe behaviours were measured on 12 construction sites among 305 respondents using a structured questionnaire. A total of 207 valid questionnaire responses were collected from site workers. Partial least square–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to examine the relationship between violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour.

The results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour on construction sites.

The findings from this study provide valuable insight into a less investigated dimension of the problem of construction site safety management. A focus on attitudinal issues such as how workers relate toward others and toward self should be an important consideration in safety improvement interventions on construction sites.