Impacts of Procurement Process on Contractor Selection in Ethiopian Roads Authority
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Date
2013-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopian Roads Authority representing the Government of Ethiopia manages the substantial
portion of the road construction projects in the country. However, most of the projects severely
suffering from over extended delays, excessive cost overruns and quality problems. Hence,
identifying prime factors in the procurement process that influences the selection of contractors
plays essential role in devising appropriate measures on selection of the right contractor that will
complete projects with the desired performance requirements.
A total of 30 factors that influence procurement process were identified based on the literature
review and investigation made in Ethiopian Roads Authority and categorized into five groups
depending on different stages of procurement process. Statistical analyses of their significances
were carried out based on questionnaire survey of senior professionals. Accordingly, the top 10
factors are identified as significantly influencing whereby 30% are related to procurement
planning and packaging, 40% are related to bid evaluation and qualification criteria and 30% are
related to tender document preparation. Moreover, the study reveals that the procurement
process is a multi step process and not properly managing the process would have a profound
impact on the project’s success or failure.
Discussion on mitigation measures of critical factors and conclusion was made based on the
responses of hypothesized questions and document analysis. Recommendation towards
improvement of the current procurement process for selecting a contractor in Ethiopian Roads
Authority was portrayed which includes; to integrate procurement planning and strategy in
projects cycles, to assess local contractors weakness and respective mitigation in the capacity
building strategy, to include quality and overall management of projects as part of contractors‘
ongoing projects performance assessment, to evaluate financial and technical capacity of
contractors’ before award of a project and to include risk assessment and mitigation of projects
as part of the major tasks of design consultants. The research also proposed a model to control
workloads of contractors as part of qualification criteria. Future research is also recommended
which includes studying the impacts of the current strategy to increase local content in the road
projects in Ethiopian.
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Ethiopian Roads