ABSTRACT

The construction industry is plagued with a lot of errors which is encountered during preparation of contract documents. These errors affect the project’s performance. The main aim of this study is to evaluate how contract documentation errors affect the cost performance of construction projects in Edo State, with a view to minimizing the critical errors that affect project costs. This research used the cross-sectional survey research design, with its population consisting of all construction professionals in Edo State. The non-probability sampling technique (purposive sampling technique) was also adopted in this research work. The data was analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). The researcher employed the use of relative importance index (RII) and ordinal regression.

This study was able to discover that documentation errors (specifically errors in the bill of quantities and the use of incomplete information) influence the cost performance of projects. It was concluded that involvement of the contractor at the early stage and organizing pre-bid meetings will reduce the errors in contract documents. It was highly recommended that consultants should be provided with adequate pay to make them more focused in producing documents with minimal errors.