INVESTIGATION ON THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF VARIATION ORDERS IN THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN JORDAN

The construction industry nowadays faces several challenges that prevent it to be completed within the planned budget. the most effected challenge on the project cost is the variation orders, which became common on most construction projects. The variations in construction projects mean any change in quantity or quality of the project work. Based on various studies in the Jordanian construction industry it is found various sources of variation orders. Therefore, it is important to provide suitable recommendations to minimize variation orders during the project lifecycle. The aim of this study is to study the variation orders causes on the governmental construction project in Jordan. To meet that aim, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to locate and study the variation orders causes and its effect on construction projects worldwide. To achieve the study objectively the researcher adopted a structured questionnaire to gather the required data about the causes of VO. The collected data were analyzed statistically using the Relative Importance Index (RII). Based on the results of the study the critical causes of VO in construction projects in Jordan are grouped into main four groups such as causes related to owners, causes related to contractors, and causes related to consultants, causes related to unforeseen circumstances. The findings of the current study revealed that the critical causes of VO in the Jordanian construction industry are: unskilled laborers, inaccurate quantity take-off, shortage of human and equipment Resource, change of scope or plans by owners, absence of construction manuals and procedures , unavailability of the required labor skills , logistic delays , shortage of equipment and tools , technology changes , internal politics .Also, the results show that consultants are responsible for about 50% of the causes, 20% due to owners and unforeseen variations, and contractors are responsible for about 10% of the causes.