Trends in Contracting of Construction Projects: A Case Study

Construction projects are usually very dynamic in nature, involving complex processes and confront risks of uncertainty and constant change. Effective management of such projects therefore requires flexible relationship between the client and contractor. Flexible relationship requires mutual trust between the client and contractor. The contracts that are inflexible suffer problems such as project delays, cost overruns and poor quality. This study is conducted with an intention to investigate the role of trust in the contracting of construction projects. The study is carried out in one of the most underdeveloped provinces of Pakistan i.e. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The construction industry in here is much underdeveloped and need to go through major transformation. This paper aims to analyze the current status of the client contractor relationship in the context of trust with in the construction industry and to find out the factors that facilitate trust and factors that impede trust during the contract. For this purpose, a total of thirty contractors were randomly selected and interviewed from the construction industry of which fifteen were from the private sector and fifteen were chosen from the government sector. The interviews results show that trust plays a significant role in the client contractor relationship. Timely funding to the contractor, timely completion of project, use of skilled labor and due time given by the contractor to the project are the factors that facilitate/ impede the development of mutual trust during the project contracting. Further the data reveals that the private contractors consider trust as a predecessor for contracting whereas on the government side contract is a predecessor for trust.