Promoting Performance of the Building Construction Industry through Risk Identification: A Case of Exchequer Funded Building Construction Projects in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Project failure is an increasingly worrying challenge in Kenya. In implementation of exchequer funded building construction projects, the challenge is real. The study examined the influence of risk management practices on the performance of exchequer funded building construction projects in Machakos County. Little research has been conducted on risk identification and its influence on performance of exchequer funded building construction in Machakos County, this study intended to on build onto the already existing body of knowledge. The study was informed by Agency theory and it employed a descriptive survey research design. The target population was 585 National Construction Authority registered contractors and sample size was 232 respondents. In this case the sample selected is deemed to be representative enough of the whole population and therefore valid and genuine generalizations can be made. Methodology involved in collection and analysis of primary data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Quantitative data was tabulated and analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. Test statistics computed to establish degree of relationship between the variables was Fisher test. The findings depict that risk identification leads to the performance of exchequer funded building construction Projects by factor of 0.237 with P values of 0.008. At 5% level of significance and 95% level of confidence, this is statistically significant as the P-Value is lower than 0.05. The results for testing the hypothesis were (P=0.008<0.05)as the P-Value is lower than 0.05. The study therefore rejects the null hypothesis. The study concludes that there is significant positive relationship between that risk identification leads to the performance of exchequer funded building construction Projects. Further research can be done to assess the risk identification in other county governments and national government projects in Kenya and other countries in order to establish whether the explored factors can be generalized to influence the performance of exchequer funded building construction Projects. The findings of this paper will be used to serve as a longer-term safeguard against risks in construction of buildings in Kenya.