Project Management Practices and Implementation of Road Infrastructure Projects in Garissa County, Kenya
Abstract
The implementation of infrastructure development is significantly impacted by project
management practices, which increase the risk of delays, cost overruns, contractual disputes,
arbitration, and quality deviations. Some projects are completely abandoned. In lieu of this, my
research aimed to determine how project management methods and practices impact project
implementations. The scope was infrastructural road projects in Garissa County, Kenya.
Consequently, this study was limited accordingly. Financial disbursements, monitoring and
control mechanisms, risk management and stakeholder participation were the independent
variables implicated as project management techniques. As a dependent variable, execution of
infrastructural projects in Garissa was considered. Therefore, the research objectives were; (i) to
determine how financial disbursement practices by road agencies affect implementation of road
infrastructure projects in Garissa County, Kenya; (i) to determine how risk management practices
by road agencies affect implementation of road infrastructure projects in Garissa County, Kenya;
(iii) to determine how monitoring and evaluation practices by road agencies affect implementation
of road infrastructure projects in Garissa County, Kenya; and (iv) to determine how stakeholder
engagement practices by road agencies affect the implementation of road infrastructure projects in
Garissa County, Kenya. For this investigation, descriptive survey research design was utilized.
The target population included 162 officials (inspectors, engineers, procurement officials, and site
agents/project managers) working with road agencies and road projects within Garissa County,
and civic leaders who represented county residents. The entire population was utilized for data
collection. For data collection, questionnaires whose reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's
method were utilized. Upon analysis, the questionnaire data were sorted and keyed into SPSS
Version 23, and descriptive and inferential statistics were generated accordingly. Using the
Shapiro-Wick test to determine normality, Pearson Correlation as well as linear regression were
chosen to establish relationship between study variables. The regression model was evaluated
using the F-test at a confidence level of 95% following analysis of variance. Monitoring and
evaluation practices (r=0.825) had the greatest influence on successful execution of infrastructural
projects undertaken by the County Government of Garissa and respective road agencies within
Garissa, followed by financial disbursement practices (r=0.787), stakeholder engagement practices
(r=0.772), and risk management practices(r=0.691). Therefore, it was determined that execution
of road infrastructure projects within Garissa County was, in a significant way, influenced by
project management techniques. Before initiating projects, it is recommended that project
implementers involve stakeholders more in planning and budgeting, employ more consultants to
lead M&E, develop a comprehensive capacity building plan for the M&E team, and conduct
adequate risk analysis to estimate probability of risk occurrence and reoccurrence, and its impact.
Government is also advised to amend the Kenya Public Procurement and Disposal Act (2015) to
discourage underquoting and front-loading by contractors, develop policies to diversify sources of
funding for road agencies, and policies to shield contractors from lenders' high interest rates.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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