Assessing the Challenges with Monitoring the Safety Practices of Operatives on Construction Site in Ghana

The study assessed the challenges associated with monitoring the Safety Practices of operatives on construction sites in Ghana. Questionnaires were purposively distributed and retrieved from the construction operatives in the Kumasi Metropolis at a response rate of 84.13%. Mean score ranking and Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance were then employed to give an in-depth understanding of the findings. The reliability of the scale was checked using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient. To confirm the degree of variation on the data, the study adopted the Coefficient of Variation (CV). The study discovered ten challenges associated with monitoring safety practices of operatives on construction site, namely; fragmented nature of construction industry, onerousness and variability of legislation, lack of financial benefit in safety, lack of bargaining power, lack of expertise or resource personnel, tight project deadline, lack of training and education, language barriers of the illiterate workers affecting the efficiency of training, subcontracting practices resulting in ambiguous or unclear responsibility for maintaining safety and unable to take weekly or daily or monthly data. The study revealed that “subcontracting practices resulting in unclear responsibility for maintaining safety” is the factor that restrains operative from monitoring safety practices on construction sites. The study recommended that responsibilities relating to safety monitoring on a construction site must be made clear enough to help ensure effective safety monitoring. The study suggests that further research should be embarked on to alleviate the challenges with monitoring the safety practices of construction operatives on sites.