Factors Influencing Sustainability of County Government Funded Construction Projects in Laikipia County, Kenya.

Abstract

1.1 Background to the study Project sustainability is one of the most critical challenges for all grassroots, national and international development projects (Ahmed, Azhar, Castillo & appagantulla, 2012). Globally, billions of shillings have been spent in public funded construction projects as a way of enhancing the living situation of the people. Project sustainability in local governments is a growing concern for governments worldwide. In the recent past, development practitioners have been focusing on efficient project monitoring and implementation that lead to project success and sustainability (ZouP, Zhang and Wang, 2017). The shift from project mode to Sector-Wide Approaches, Structural Adjustment measures to Programmes-based Approaches, Direct Budget Support, Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks reflect this concern for reducing the fragmentation of development systems and change the way projects are implemented. The reason why many of the projects become unsustainable is not because of technical issues but are related to management, social relationships, community dynamics, monitoring and evaluation procedures, resources, staff capacity and the level of participation of stakeholders in projects (Al-Bahar and Crandall, 2010). Sustainability can be viewed within time and changing social, economic and political contexts. According to Ayudhya (2011), sustainability is reflected in the capacity of the community to cope with change and adapt to new situations. Hussin & Omran (2012) assert that project sustainability means that new structures are appropriately owned by the stakeholders and supported on ongoing basis with locally available resources. Hence, managing sustainability is a process aimed at maximizing the flow of sustainable benefits, it should be an ongoing process and needs to be reviewed and updated as circumstances change and lessons are learned from experiences (Carignac, 2017). Substantial resources have been allocated to developing and maintaining community-based programs in most developing countries, however, relatively little is known about how these programs are sustained and what factors lead to their failure. Quite often, the typical community-based program has a relatively short life once its original funding base expires. Inadequate information and understanding of what sustains community based projects has led to various researches focusing on how community projects can be sustained past 2 their initial funding base and increase their longevity in addressing the needs of the community (Koushki, Al-Rashid & Kartam, 2015). Carlsson, Josephson & Larson (2011) assert that there are four aspects of sustainability, which are needed to be recognized and analyzed. These include societal influence, which measures the impact a society makes upon the corporation in terms of the social contract and stakeholder influence; environmental impact, which is the effect of the actions of the corporation upon its geophysics environment; organizational culture, which is the relationship between the corporation and its internal stakeholders and finances, an adequate return for the level of risk undertaken in pursuit of sustainable development and financial sustainability Mojahed, 2015). Maintaining benefits from projects flows after major external funding is completed assumes that stakeholders (government, community groups and private sector) will provide an appropriate level of financial, technical and managerial resources. However, AID providers may need to provide some limited follow-on assistance such as intermittent technical support (including sector advisory visits or supplementing financial support to enhance the prospects for sustainability and consolidate achievements (Fapohunda & Stephenson, 2010). Globally, projects implemented by the County Governments in states like Texas for example include: modern community hospitals, mobile hospitals units, residential buildings, feeder roads, interconnecting railway lines, water projects, tourism project construction, waste management, agricultural projects, and housing units (Assaf & Al-Heiji, 2016). However, Jha, & Iyer (2016), on the development of manufacturing companies in America, Austria, Malaysia and India indicated that there is imbalanced development in various states, counties and local states or municipalities in all these most countries. The major reason cited for this different development in states/counties despites the fact that they are operating in the same countries include: differing state/county by laws, rates of imposed taxes, financial resources availability, natural resources availability, corruption, infrastructure, politics, security, cultural factors and educational factors and climatic conditions (Olatunji, 2010). Factors like political opposition, level of technology, human resources development, financial resources allocation from the budgets, availability of minerals and many more has greatly influenced projects implementation in most countries up to the tune of 55% (Omran, Abdalrahman & Pakir, 2012.