On Cost Performance of Public Building Projects: Determining the Effect of Errors in Bills of Quantities in North Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Construction cost performance is one of the major criteria by which success of building projects are measured. However, numerous factors were reported by researchers to be responsible for extreme poor cost performance, among which is inaccurate cost estimate. Preceding researches focused largely on: identifying and categorizing errors in Bills of Quantities (BOQ) as a document that provides cost estimate, errors in construction contract document at large, and sustainability of the application of BOQ despite the faced challenges. It is therefore necessary to determine the level of effects of errors in BOQ as a component of contract document on cost performance of public building project in order to augment the effectiveness of cost performance in North Eastern Nigeria. Positivist research approach was used where 140 questionnaires were administered to quantity surveyors (QSs): consultants’ QSs, contractors’ QSs and public servants’ QSs whom were selected using simple random sampling technique. 112 were returned and 105 were used for the analysis with 7 invalids, this resulted to response rate of 75%. The effect of errors was measured using multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that errors in BOQ contributes to poor cost performance with statistically significant effect size of 6.8%. This research is limited to errors in BOQ in North Eastern Nigeria. It should serve as a wake-up call to stakeholders in Nigerian construction industry on the consequences of errors in BOQ for enhancing effective cost performance for national economic development.