Cost control systems in the construction industry; A critical assessment into the inclusion of ‘tracking amortization of advanced payment’ as an indicator for project performance in Ireland and the United Kingdom
Authors
Obimah, Dickson
Issue Date
2018
Degree
MA of Business Administration
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
The project-oriented nature of the construction industry makes it unique and different from other business environments due to its “multi-faceted”, “complicated” nature and the level of “uncertainty” it faces, an oversight in this view has only lead to a “higher-than-average” failure rate compared to other businesses. Some of these failures were related to cost control and financial issues and therefore the need to sort for more ways to improve the cost control/financial systems/models in the construction industry, and led to the critical assessment into the inclusion of ‘tracking amortization of advance payment’ as an indicator for project performance’. A qualitative method of research was carried out to answer the research question i.e. can the tracking amortization of advance payment’ be used to determine project performance status? through conducting semi-structured interviews to gain insight and perceptions of real life scenarios by interviewing experienced and practicing individuals in the Irish and UK construction industry. The analysis of the interview of five experienced and practicing professionals was prepared and found out that there is a relativeness between the amortization of advance payments and the performance status of the project and there lies the possibilities of tracking project performance through tracking amortization of advance payments but there were concerns of a complicated process in the midst of changing variables i.e. time, cost, scope, client requirements etc. However, for the realisation of positive results from this concept it has to be integrated into the firms control system and also support from the construction industry at large in terms of policies, measures of control etc. and the further development in terms of deeper research.