Procurement system selection model for the Sri Lankan construction industry

Abstract

Construction procurement system involves processes of acquiring services and products for the project activities starting from investigation up to the completion. With the development of new concepts and technologies, construction procurement arrangements have also advanced. Erroneous selection of a procurement system usually leads project to failure. Although, several procurement selection tools have been developed to minimize the adverse effect of overwhelmed wrong selections, those tools are not widely used in Sri Lanka (SL). Hence, it is vital to propose a new Procurement System Selection Model (PSSM) which can overcome barriers of existing PSSM. A qualitative approach was used to identify prevailing practices and barriers to practice existing selection methods. Decision charts were developed by assigning average utility values for functional grouping, payment method and pricing mechanism. Accordingly, the preliminary procurement system selection framework was arranged which includes seven steps namely; appoint an independent advisor, identification of project brief, identification and prioritizing factors affecting selection of procurement selection, choose functional grouping and payment modality, presentation of options found in step four in ascending order, selection of procurement strategy by the client and selection of parties involved in the project. Ultimately, proposed PSSM in this study merge the existing selection procedure in SL in a manner that leads selection into its best position. The study further recommends timely modernization of decision charts with Average Utility Value (AUV) and procurement systems, since suitability of each procurement system to selection criteria may change with development of construction industry.