The preliminaries bill for quantities of a construction project provides general information, mandatory instructions, and setup running costs for a construction contract period. The bill is crucial and arbitrary in nature. The aim of this study is to verify the percentage difference between preliminaries of building and civil infrastructure works. The objective is to assist players in the construction industry to differentiate the preliminaries percentage between both types of civil works. As such, the decision maker would be able to make a more reliable budget allocation, particularly for the civil infrastructure project. 25 tender evaluation documents from six civil infrastructure tender evaluation exercises were analysed. The average preliminaries were derived based on the qualitative method using content analysis. The preliminaries for building works established by previous researchers and civil infrastructure derived from this study were compared to verify any significant deviation. The statistical analyses using Boussabaine's and standard deviation were compared to establish the most reliable result. The study concludes that the preliminaries of civil infrastructure works are between 3.26% and 6.38% as compared to that of building works between 3.60% and 7.94%. Consequently, the preliminaries of civil infrastructure work are lower up to 16.5% as compared to the building work. Despite the differences, average preliminaries are higher than 3% but not exceeding 10% of the tender sum for both types of construction works. Thus, the findings provided significant updates for the Malaysian construction industry.
Civil engineering work deals with nature and thus, is exposed to enormous discrepancies due to nature’s complexity compared to building works which are more certain. In the Malaysian construction industry, it is generally accepted that civil engineers administer civil engineering contracts and prepare tender documents. The Civil Engineering Preliminaries Protocol (CEPP) for conventional contracts is an ongoing research that deliberates on the cost-related items included in the Preliminaries. Preliminaries are subjective in nature and largely challenging to price. This paper considered previous research findings by conducting a literature review and accordingly, highlighted the problem statements raised on the contractual risks present due to the fallacy of item description. The identification of underlying problems and gaps within the area of study justifies the aim of the research to establishing a common protocol that is conversant to both engineers and contractors. The objective of the protocol is to eliminate disputes due to vagueness, ambiguities, and duplication of preliminary items in order to improve price accuracy. In practice, different approaches are taken by engineers and contractors in dealing with preliminary items. Engineers provide bills of preliminaries and contractors price them accordingly without establishing any mutual understanding and responsibility for risks. Conventional contracts prohibit contractors to provide their own preliminaries. Contractors instead have to obtain clarification on any ambiguities in the contract within the speculated time given during the tender period. As a way forward, the CEPP provides better clarity, accuracy, and transparency to engineers and contractors as well as the other construction players in general. Reliable descriptions of preliminary items ensure better price accuracy for the betterment of the construction industry.
Construction is a diverse and complex sector. It consists of projects with intricate activities and interfaces between stakeholders who undergo a series of development phases using numerous resources, integration of technologies, materials, and approaches. Theoretically, construction projects can be well planned. However, it is being exposed to unanticipated events or crises that could disrupt original plans, affecting organizations’ operation and progress of construction projects. Problems may even have the propensity to destroy the organization significantly. Considering the current paradigm of crisis, the Covid-19 outbreak that emerged in late 2019 has continuously left a lasting impact on the construction industry. As of August 2020, Covid-19 has spread to over 200 countries, and the number has increased beyond 100,000 cases in Malaysia. Regardless of Covid-19 has placed great stress on all aspects worldwide, it led to the closure of most construction businesses, causing contraction towards industry growth to the greatest to extend of -7.9%, the lowest since 1999. In this context, the effort to ensure the preparedness of the construction organizations against crisis has become an issue. Hence, this paper aims to structure a framework that consists of principles and processes which can recover and develop a resilient construction industry. The method used for this study is Systematic Literature Review of related journals gathered through WOS, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, reports, and relevant references from Government Authorised agencies circa 1998 to 2020. 4262 articles were identified, and 111 papers were subsequently selected for further analysis. Based on the findings, there are five major phases of CM, including prepare, prevent, respond, evaluate, and redesign. The proposed CM includes 4 elements and 2 outputs. The preliminary findings form the foundation for an extended investigation to offer a specific crisis management plan to guide the Malaysian construction industry, specifically in Klang Valley, to be resilient during plight.Keywords: Crisis, External Crisis, Crisis Management Plan, Construction Sector
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