Hamimah Adnan

A Study of Construction Claim Management Problems in Malaysia

Abstract The frequency of claims is unavoidable given the nature of the contracts, their complexity, the number of parties involved, the risk and the pressure of time constraint in the preparation of the contract documents and the realisation of the work. The significantly increasing number of construction claims indicates the need for the implementation of an effective construction claim management. This paper will look into claim problems experienced by Malaysian contractors in construction projects. To achieve this, questionnaires survey were conducted involving the contractors and consultants. The findings indicate that the lack of site staff awareness to proactively detect claims, inaccessibility or unavailability of relevant documents, and conflicts which arises during owner/contractor negotiation are all critical problems associated with the process of claim management. The problems observed from this research could be used to solve or improve the contractors’ claim management system.

Risk Management in Built Operate Transfer (BOT) in Malaysia

This paper aims to look into risk management in Built Operate Transfer (BOT) projects in Malaysia. Risk management was used as a tool in managing projects in order to reduce risk especially for projects that involved with huge amount of money. Risk management process in the BOT projects involved risk identification, risk classification, risk analysis and risk response. This paper also will identify the usage of the BOT as a procurement method in construction and to make recommendation on the best way to mitigate the risk encountered in BOT project. Questionnaires survey was sent out to 140 contractors Grade G7 contractors registered under the Malaysian Construction Industry Board and 10 interviews were been held to get in depth information from the respondents. It was found that by having a proper risk management procedure, the risk would be reduced in BOT projects. The main recommendation for this research is all parties should have same appreciation to identify the risks by working together in order to improve the effectiveness of the risk management.

Conflict, Complexity, and Uncertainty in Building Refurbishment Projects

Building refurbishments involve improvement, upgrading, renovation, retrofit, and repair of existing buildings. It is an important sector of the construction industry. Building refurbishment projects are characterized by a high level of complexity and uncertainty which often involves factors such as change in design, inadequate and unavailable information which may initiate conflicts. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the factors cause conflicts. A comprehensive literature review was carried out as part of on-going Ph.D. research program. The review reveals that building refurbishment projects are more uncertain than new building projects and that the uncertainties tend to increase conflicts. This paper concludes that knowledge relating to complexity and uncertainty in refurbishment projects and the factors that cause conflict has to be managed systematically to enable successful project implementation.

Assessing important qualities of the design team in managing client's brief

Development of sufficient brief is crucial to ensure successful achievement of expected outcomes of construction projects. The client is responsible for delivering required information during briefing. However, their lack of knowledge and experience is a barrier to active involvement during briefing. The paper presents the findings of the questionnaire survey of 104 consultant architects on the importance of clients participation during the briefing process and highlights the qualities of the design team as pre-requisites for improving the attributes of clients during briefing. In this study, the design team includes architects, engineers and quantity surveyors. Five related variables tested were found significant to influence client attributes. These are experience, competency, commitment, ability to understand the client and teamwork within the design team. These key qualities facilitate the design team in understanding the client and fostering teamwork which leads to consequential enhancement of brief development.