Contractor Selection in Nigeria
Contractor Selection in Nigeria
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                                                                         International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
                                                                                                   Volume 179 – No.22, February 2018
     (i)   review the various criteria used for contractors pre-         2. LITERATURE REVIEW
           qualification and bid evaluation as stated in the             Contractor pre-qualification and bid evaluation procedures are
           literature.                                                   currently used in many countries, and involve the
     (ii) identify the criteria that are actually used to evaluate       development and consideration of a wide range of decision
           contractors’ pre-qualification and bids in Nigeria.           criteria to evaluate the overall suitability of contractors. A
     (iii) evaluate and analyze the relevant criteria for                literature review on the decision criteria used in selecting
           contractor’s selection in Nigeria.                            contractors suggested a combined list of criteria used by
     (iv) rank the criteria in order of priority using Analytic          clients when choosing main contractor ([6]; [7]; [8]; [9]; [10];
           Hierarchy Process.                                            and [11]) as shown in Table 1.
                            Table 1. Decision criteria for selecting main contractor from literature review
                                                                                 Previous Study
  Main Contractor                       Puri and        Nieto-Morote,   Arazi et al.,   Topcu        Palaneeswarn and        Skitmore,
  Selection Criteria                    Tiwari          and Ruz-Vila    (2011)          (2004)       Kumarasway,             (1999)
                                        (2014)          (2012)                                       (2001)
 Financial stability                          √                √             √              √                 √                    √
 Background of company                                                                      √                 √                    √
 Technical capacity                           √                √             √                                √                    √
 Cost                                                                                       √                 √                    √
 Past Performance                                              √             √              √
 Standard of quality                                                                        √                 √                    √
 Occupational health and safety               √                √             √              √                 √                    √
 Time performance                                                            √              √                 √                    √
 Management capability                        √                √             √              √
 Failed contract                                                                            √
 Progress of work                                                                           √
 Human resource management                                                                                                         √
 Level of technology                                                         √              √
 Relationship with client                                                    √                                √                    √
 Relationship with sub-contractors                                                          √
 Fraudulent activity                                                                        √
 Competitiveness                                                                            √
 Reputation                                   √
 Bid Price                                                                   √
 Political Considerations                                                    √
 Friendship                                                                  √
 Experience in similar projects                                √             √
 Progress of existing projects                                               √
 No of projects at hand                                                      √
Several researches have been carried out by different                    questionnaire survey. The survey was conducted with a group
researchers on decision criteria. [12] ranked the main criteria          of 12 experts working in the Libyan construction industry
for contractor selection procedures on major construction                (LCI). The paper aims to rank contractor selection criteria
projects in Libya using the Delphi Method. This paper                    with specific application to make construction projects in the
evaluates the current state of knowledge in relation to                  Libyan context.
contractor selection process and demonstrates the findings               [11] evaluated the criteria for contractors’ selection and bid
from the analysis of the data collected from the Delphi                  evaluation. This study identified the criteria for selection of
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                                                                    International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
                                                                                              Volume 179 – No.22, February 2018
contractor and bid evaluation with different emphases to suit       in Nigeria when awarding a contract to contractors. In this
the requirements of clients and projects. The methodology           research, [3] model was adopted. These are; structuring the
used in this research was conducted by sending a                    hierarchy, pair-wise comparisons (determining the weights)
questionnaire to different project managers in India and had        and ranking phase (ranking of the decision criteria). Figure 1
an exceptionally high rate of response of 72%. The analysis         shows the flowchart of the AHP Process.
led to some interesting findings that reflect on the current
practice. The paper also provide construction contractors
with recommendations in pursuit of better evaluation of
construction bids both technically and financially.
[17] examined the determinant factors for the choice of the         Step 2: Identify and state all the criteria involve in the
prequalification criteria in Niger Delta region of Nigeria with                  selection process.
the aim of providing information that could enhance                 Decision makers play an important role on the reliability and
contractor's selection in a recessed economy. Questionnaires        accuracy of solving contractor selection problems, because the
were administered on the entire population, out of which 77         problem of ranking the decision criteria using AHP is
were retrieved and used for analysis. The collected data were       modeled on decision maker’s judgment. This research first
analyzed using, Mean Item Score (MIS) and Factor Analysis           identified the actual criteria from literature review and criteria
(FA). The results showed that past performance of contractors       used by clients for the selection of contractors from current
ranked the most important of the existing pre-qualification         practice in Nigeria. This was investigated through a
criterion followed by experience of the contractor and              questionnaire which covers a selected sample of 60. The
evidence of incorporation.                                          respondents were allowed to add other criteria not covered by
                                                                    the questionnaire. The ranking were based on the relative
Therefore the overall motivation of this research is the need to    importance of the criteria as perceived by professionals
analyze, evaluate and rank decision criteria for contractor         operating in the procurement units (procurement officers) and
selection in Federal Universities in Nigeria. The research will     some other professionals that were involved in the decision
provide baseline information to the construction clients and        making process using their accumulated experience and
consultants on the importance of contractor’s prequalification      judgment.
selection criteria to be adopted, which will eventually
translate to a better decision making and increase project          The criteria used in this research were adopted from the
performance.                                                        research of [11] and [10].Table 2 consists of the main criteria
                                                                    that were considered; the criteria are: Financial Stability,
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY                                             Technical Capability, Past Performance, Occupational Health
An extensive review of some existing literature in the area of      and Safety, Management Capability, Reputation, Experience
decision criteria and Analytic Hierarchy process were carried       in similar project.
out. In this research, Federal Universities in Nigeria were
chosen as a case study. A general literature review was carried
out on different criteria that are used by Federal Universities
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                                                                          International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
                                                                                                    Volume 179 – No.22, February 2018
     Table 2. Main Technical Criteria to be evaluated                    industries in the world. In addition, it is well acknowledged
                                                                         that the construction industry has the highest accident and
 S/N     Criterion     Main Contractor Selection Criteria                illness related records over any other branch or industry
                                                                         sector. With that in mind, many thinkers have considered
 1       C1            Financial Stability                               safety in the construction industry as a priority in the research
                                                                         area. Similarly, [22] argued that around the world, health and
                                                                         safety in the construction industry is a grave concern.
 2       C2            Technical Capability
                                                                         C5: Management Capability: The contractor must
 3       C3            Past Performance                                  demonstrate that it is capable of planning, organizing and
                                                                         controlling a project. [23] reported that 8 out of 14 projects
                                                                         failed because of lack of managerial experience
 4       C4            Occupational Health and Safety                    and technical staff. Many researchers have considered
                                                                         management as one of the most important factors in the
 5       C5            Management Capability                             company’s life cycle.
C1: Financial Stability: This indicator category signifies the           C7: Experience in similar project: Contractor experience
financial credibility of a contractor with which it can handle           entails the type of projects completed in respect to location,
capital crises ([18]; [19]). The client must reach an informed           nature, size, scope, local and national experience, to determine
opinion regarding the overall financial position and ability of          whether or not it has handled jobs of similar nature and scope.
contractor [10].                                                         Also it demonstrates a contractor's ability to allocate and
                                                                         spread its resources in an effective manner [26].
 C2: Technical Capability: In this factor, the contractor must
prove that it has the technical capacity to perform all activities       Step 3: Establishing hierarchical structure
required by a specific project [19]. To provide a consistently           After determining the criteria, the hierarchical structure was
high quality product or service, promote successful                      set up. The hierarchical structure for ranking the decision
development efforts, and ensure future improvements, a firm              criteria consists of three levels. Level A, the target level,
needs competent technical support from its contractors.                  demonstrates the final objective of the whole hierarchical
                                                                         structure, which is ranking the decision criteria for Federal
C3: Past Performance: Past performance of a contractor is                Universities in Nigeria. Level B contains the measurement
the measure of the body of similar work done satisfactorily by           criteria that will be rank by the AHP. Level C contains the
a contractor in the past [20] resulting in a higher or lower             alternatives or companies which are going to be measured and
degree of confidence in the possible contractors regarding the           prioritized based on their performance. The research only
quality, time and cost control requirements [10].                        consider level A and level B of the hierarchical structure. The
                                                                         hierarchical structure is sketched in Figure 2.
C4: Occupational Health and Safety: According to [21], the
construction industry has been one of the most dangerous
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                                                                       International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
                                                                                                 Volume 179 – No.22, February 2018
 ratings were based on a 9-point Saaty AHP scale as shown in                             Table 5. Priority vector/weight
 Table 3.
                  Table 3. Saaty AHP scale                             Criterion                                 Priority
                                                                                                            vector/Normalized
Value                Scale (aij)           Definition
                                                                                                               Eigen vector
                                                                          C1           (C1+C2+….+C7)/7               M
Equally Important          1          i and j are equally important
                                                                          C2           (C1+C2+….+C7)/7                N
Weakly Important           2          i is weakly important than j
                                                                          C3           (C1+C2+….+C7)/7                O
                           3                                              C4           (C1+C2+….+C7)/7                P
Fairly Important           4          i is fairly important than j        C5           (C1+C2+….+C7)/7                Q
                           5                                              C6           (C1+C2+….+C7)/7                R
Strongly Important         6          i is strongly important than j      C7           (C1+C2+….+C7)/7                S
                           7                                           The priority vector/weight is then shown in a single matrix as:
Absolutely                 8          i is absolutely important than
Important                             j                                       𝑊1
                                                                              𝑊2
All of the questions concerning the weighting are collected                   𝑊3
from the questionnaire survey. The judgments are entered
                                                                          W = 𝑊4                                (2)
using the fundamental scale for pairwise comparisons. To
                                                                              𝑊5
elicit pairwise comparisons performed at a given time, a
                                                                              𝑊6
matrix A is created. Pairwise comparison is used, because
only two elements are involved in the comparison at a time as                 𝑊7
shown in equation (1).
                                                                       Step 7: Check for Consistency Ratio (CR)
   a𝑖𝑗       ⋯ a𝑖𝑛                                                     Once judgments have been entered, it is necessary to check
𝐴= ⋮         ⋱  ⋮              (1)                                     that they are consistent. Some inconsistency is expected and
   a𝑛𝑖       ⋯ a𝑛𝑛                                                     allowed in AHP analysis. Since the numeric values are
                                                                       derived from the subjective preferences of individuals, it is
                                 1                                     impossible to avoid some inconsistencies in the final matrix of
where a𝑖𝑗 = 1: ∀𝑖 = 𝑗; a𝑗𝑖 = a : ∀𝑖 ≠ 𝑗, a𝑖𝑗 is the
                                 𝑖𝑗                                    judgments [27]. The question is how much inconsistency is
evaluation between criterion i and criterion j of eth expert           acceptable.
Step 5: Calculate and construct the normalized matrix                  [27] proposed what is called consistency ratio (C.R), which is
The normalized matrix is then calculated by adding together            a comparison between Consistency Index (C.I) and Random
each column as shown in Table 4.                                       index (R.I).
   Table 4. Normalized matrix showing the Sum Column
                                                                               𝐶.𝐼
                                                                       𝐶. 𝑅. = 𝑅.𝐼                             (3)
inconsistent. The average random consistency index (R.I) of              In this research, seven criteria were used in ranking the
sample size 10 is shown in the Table 6 below:                            decision criteria for contractor selection. The criteria are
                                                                         Financial Stability (C1), Technical Capability (C2), Past
         Table 6. Random consistency index (R.I)                         Performances (C3), Occupational Health and Safety (C4),
                                                                         Management Capability (C5), Reputation (C6), and
                                                                         Experience (C7). After constructing the decision hierarchy
                                                                         and obtaining the evaluation criteria and alternatives, the
                                                                         weights of the importance criteria were calculated using AHP
                                                                         method.
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                                                                         International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
                                                                                                   Volume *– No.*, ___________ 2017
                                                                                         C2 C3
  Row                                              Row Ave *                5
                                                                            4
 Average      Column Total                       Column Total
0.022 43 0.946
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                                                                 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
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