Causes of public projects delays and cost overruns in municipal buildings

Abstract

The poor performance of public construction projects with regards to cost overruns and delays has been recurrent in Brazil and other developing countries, and several research studies have focused on the analysis of the causes of deficient performance and have produced guidelines for project improvement. This study aims to present a diagnostic study on cost overruns and schedule delays in public projects in the city of Belo Horizonte. The first step of the study consisted of analysis of the costs and schedule problems for public projects over the past six years. In the second stage, interviews were conducted with stakeholders in order to establish a ranking of possible causes, based on literature research. Respondents indicated their perception of the impacts and frequency from a list of attributes that affect the timing and cost of projects. Interview data were analysed using the Relative Importance Index (RII), Frequency Index (FI) and Importance Index (IMPI). The results highlight that the main causes of cost overruns and schedule delays are highly related to design problems in the earlier stages of projects.

Keywords:
Public projects; Cost and schedule analysis; Design process