A Framework to integrate sustainability into the public procurement process in the Sri Lankan construction industry

Abstract

A well-designed, effective, and transparent Public Procurement Process (PP Process) in the construction industry is an integral part of achieving sustainability in developing countries, where the contribution of the PP Process to the construction industry accounts for 30% of the GDP. As per the Department of Census and Statistics, the value of the civil works contracts in Sri Lanka in 2019 was USD 4.9 billion. Hence, a 1% efficiency in the construction industry saves more than USD 49 million per year. However, the current PP Processes in the construction industry in developing countries have lagging features in achieving sustainable development objectives due to many problems. Developing countries lack continued national strategies and sustainability focus in their PP Process in the construction industry compared to developed countries. This is identified as a main problem, in addition to the outdated knowledge and technology used by the contract parties and officers in the procuring entity. The development partners requested the borrowers to strengthen the PP Process with approaches to integrate sustainability into the PP Process to overcome the deficiencies of the process. Hence, the study formulated the key research question, “How to integrate sustainability into the Public Procurement Process in the Sri Lankan construction industry?” The aim of addressing this research problem was to develop a framework to integrate sustainability into the PP Process in the Sri Lankan construction industry, with five objectives. A comprehensive literature review, a desk study consisting of four internationally accepted guidelines and review reports, a preliminary study through interviews with 14 experts, a main investigation via interviews with 35 respondents, and an expert validation forum with five industry experts were conducted to develop, evaluate, and validate the proposed framework to integrate sustainability into the PP Process. This research selected a pragmatic stance. Accordingly, qualitative data were analysed using manual content analysis, and quantitative data were analysed using the arithmetic mean and presented in the X-Matrix Diagram using a colour code. The research focused only on integrating sustainability into the public procurement process but not the sustainability of the end product in the construction industry. The desk study and the preliminary study verified the applicability of five key stages: (a) preparation, (b) design, (c) pre-construction, (d) construction, and (e) use, and related 39 activities, ten key problems and 22 key root causes, and 15 sustainability factors to the PP Process in the Sri Lankan construction industry. The findings confirmed the high impact of the 22 key root causes on the ten key problems and the high impact of the identified problems on the 39 activities of the PP Process. The root cause, ‘Negligence, errors, and technical deficiencies’ has the highest arithmetic mean value for eight problems out of ten. All ten problems highly impacted the activities in the latter part of the Preparation Stage and almost all activities in the Design and Pre- Construction Stages. The 22 root causes were highly impacted by 80% of the key sustainability factors, and 20% of the sustainability factors have a ‘medium impact’ on the root causes. Finally, the research developed a framework by integrating sustainability factors into the PP Process in the construction industry in Sri Lanka. The study contributed to the theory by identifying the sustainability factors needed to upgrade the existing PP Process in the construction industry for developing countries with similar contexts to Sri Lanka. The developed framework will support the construction industry in addressing problems at each PP Process stage by incorporating sustainability factors into the process. The Sri Lankan government could effectively use these research findings to develop a national policy, improve and update procurement guidelines and standard bidding documents, and establish indicators to monitor and evaluate the PP Process activities in the construction industry to achieve sustainable development. The findings will ultimately facilitate the development of a Sustainable Public Procurement Process (SPPP) in the construction industry