Construction Industry Indicators Affecting Contractors

Abstract

Annual monitoring of the condition of the South African construction industry is vital to enable government and other role players to evaluate the impact of current interventions to timeously and pro-actively implement revised legislation, strategies and development programs to form an updated roadmap for the future well-being and growth of the industry. This monitoring of the construction industry is done annually by the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) by utilizing construction industry indicators. A database with contact particulars of employers, contractors and agents involved in 3441 projects completed in 2008 was compiled. Three separate survey forms were faxed or e-mailed to the contractors, employers and agents of these projects. Their responses were captured in a Microsoft Access database. The scope of this report is limited to the results received from the contractors. The main findings were that the projects of small upcoming contractors were just as profitable as those of the larger well-established contractors. Only 42% of all contractors were paid on time. The national departments were the worst performers with regard to timeous payment of contractors. This research contributes to the understanding of the construction industry and highlights existing problems to solve on the way forward. Government can make use of the results obtained to timeously and pro-actively implement revised legislation, strategies and development programs to ensure the well-being and growth of the industry.