THE EFFECTS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILIARITY WITH

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES AND CONSTRUCTION PROJECT COST

PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA: A MEDIATION APPROACH USING PROCESS
MACRO
Abdullahi Nafiu Zadawa1, Abdul Aziz Hussin1, Atasya Osmadi1
1

School of Housing Building and Planning Universiti Sains Malaysia.

(Email: nafiuzadawa@gmail.com).

ABSTRACT
Public procurement guidelines are the procedural manual guiding public
procurement process in Nigeria. The guidelines are as highlighted by the public
procurement Act enacted in the year 2007. This was part of the measures taking
to reforming the procurement sector so as to overcome the rampant
irregularities that surrounds public procurement process especially within the
construction industry. Compliance with the procurement guidelines among
construction procurement professionals has not been without challenges.
Selective implementation of the procurement guidelines has been affecting the
performance of the construction industry especially in terms of project cost. This
paper identified familiarity with the procurement guidelines as one the major
compliance factor with the procurement guidelines. In an attempt to suggest a
remedy awareness as a mediator between familiarity and construction project
cost performances was identified and tested. Data was collected using 374
questionnaire survey from the procurement entities of federal universities in
Northern Nigeria. The mediation was tested using Process macro in SPSS version
21. The result shows that, awareness has lessen the effects of unfamiliarity with
the procurement guidelines on construction project cost performance, and has
proved the occurrence of mediation between the compliance factor and
construction project cost performances. It is therefore recommended that,
awareness on the procurement guidelines be enhance among construction
procurement stakeholders in order to improve compliance level.
Key words: Procurement, Guidelines, Compliance, Construction, Cost.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Building procurement activities forms the major functions of the construction
industry; through which the industrys end products are produced, employment

opportunities are provided, for example the Nigerian construction industry

provides employment slots that covers up to 25% of the countrys workforce
(Ibrahim, Githae, & Dianga Stephen, 2014).
Public procurement is an inevitable tool for nations development used by every
government that is aspiring to fulfil its mandates of developing its nation and
putting in place the necessary physical facilities and structures (Malaysian,
2013). Therefore having an efficient, transparent as well as fraudulent-free public
procurement strategies developed based on a well-structured legal framework
and procedural manual could be a catalyst to achieving such mission. Nigeria is
not isolated for such demand especially now that the country is targeting to be
among the world top economies by 2020 (Shwarka & Anigbogu, 2012).
Nigeria is a developing nation, the country is still in the process of fulfilling the
basic needed infrastructural facilities

(Ameh & Ogundare, 2013). The policy

governing the public expenditure in the country for the purpose of procurement
of goods and services is the Public procurement Act 2007, and the procedural
manual for public procurement processes is the Public procurement guidelines as
highlighted in the PPA 2007.
However after Nine years of the enactment of the procurement Act and
subsequent issuance of the procurement guidelines, full implementation of the
guidelines is yet to be achieved, signifying non-compliance to the procurement
guidelines (Jibrin, Ejura, & Augustine, 2014; Shehu, 2014). This paper identified
familiarity with the procurement guideline as a determinant factor of compliance,
hence unfamiliarity affects compliance which subsequently affects construction
project cost performance. Awareness is proposed and tested as a mediating
variable

between

the

compliance

factor

and

construction

project

cost

performances.

2.1 FAMILIARITY WITH THE PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES

Familiarity is identified from existing literature as one of the variable that
determines compliance with the procurement guidelines (Jibrin et al., 2014;
Onyinkwa, 2013; Shehu, 2014). Been familiar with the procurement policies as
well as the guidelines are ground rules to its adoption and to achieve reasonable
level of implementation by the various stakeholders. Familiarisation seems to be

a prerequisite to implementation.

There is serious lack of awareness on the

public procurement guidelines in Nigeria leading to unfamiliar with the

procurement guidelines among the major stakeholders (Shehu, 2014).
Furthermore Shehu (2014) strongly augured that, almost all the construction
procurement stakeholders are either unaware of the existence of the said
guidelines, or entirely not familiar with its provision not to talk of its application.
In some instances the behaviours of the stakeholders seems to be like they are
not aware of the existence of the guidelines, hence keeping to the inherent
procurement practices and procedures (Shehu, 2014). For the few Stakeholders
that are aware of the existence of the procurement guidelines as well as the
provisions of the PPA 2007, they have an encouraging perception on its mission
only that some are full of doubt on whether the policy can impact positively on
reducing the level of corrupt practices considering the nature of its diversification
or not (Fayomi, 2013).
Fayomi (2013) further highlighted that the level of ignorant of the procurement
guidelines among stakeholders is largely due to the stakeholders wrong
perception on the objectives of the guidelines, where most of the stakeholders
especially Contractors and Suppliers are looking at it as a merely an outmoded
protocol to slowing the procurement processes. The Nigerian public procurement
guidelines implementation process is still at infancy stage, as the guidelines
were just introduced newly after the enactment of the PPA in the year 2007
hence most of the stakeholders are not familiar with the new guidelines.
In addition Fayomi (2013) further observed that, misconception and unfamiliarity
with the procurement policies are the major factors contributing to the poor
compliance with procurement reform mechanism. Non-compliance with the
procurement rules are allied with the inadequacy of familiarity with the
procurement guidelines, and it has been identified as a major challenge to the
moves for effective procurement reform in many African countries despite the
fact that they have since enacted their respective Public procurement law
(Migosi, Ombuki, Ombuki, & Evusa, 2013). The point of argument here is that in a
situation where the procurement stakeholders and units officers are ignorant of
the guidelines, definitely there is a high expectation of non-compliance. Hence
compliance is said to be completely fulfilled when rules, regulations, legislation
and procedural manual are strictly adhered to (Snell, 2004).

3.0 METHODOLOGY
Generally the method to be used in carrying out research defends on the type of
problem at hand and the research question to be answered (De Vaus & de Vaus,
2001). Considering the problem at hand and the research question to be attend
to and with reference with previous research Quantitative research approach is
employed for the study. Quantitative method is more appropriate to a study with
variables and predictors to a problem as causes. Quantitative method allows the
variables to be tested with the help of theories so that an appropriate outcome
can be obtained (Sekaran & Roger, 2009). The study employed surveys
approach, with structured questionnaire as the instrument for data collection
from the respondents. Since the targeted population is large, survey strategy is
chosen so that an enquiry from the selected sample can be made and the
outcome can be generalised. Besides, the study is aimed at examining the
mediating effects of awareness between

identified influencing factors to non-

compliance with public procurement guidelines and construction project cost

performance hence survey methodological approach is proved to be appropriate
for enquiry of this nature (Taylor, Sinha, & Ghoshal, 2006).

3.1 POPULATION
The population of the study comprises 3400 procurement stakeholders across
the 40 federal universities in Nigeria (NUC, 2015). Based on Krejcie and Morgan
(1970) a population of 3400 has sample size of 345. A total of 585 questionnaire
were distributed across the 22 federal universities mainly in Northern Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria was choose because of the rampant cases of non-compliance
with the procurement guidelines (Ekwo, 2013), and the backwardness in terms
educational infrastructural facilities availability (Moja, 2000).

3.2 VALIDATING THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

Validity is employed in research to help identify how good the dimension and the
elements of the concept are described and represented in the items of the
questionnaire (U. Sekaran, 2006). Some sample of the instrument were

distributed to expert and some typical respondents whom in turn gave feedback
and judgement on the suitability of the items selected to measure the construct
(Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006). The instrument was validated in
the study area (Nigeria) using experts from the Academia which include
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Bayero University Kano, Ahmadu
Bello University Zaria, and from the industry by carefully selecting practicing
professional Quantity Surveyors.

3.3 SURVEY INSTRUMENT

This study adopts questionnaire as the main survey instrument. Questionnaire is
adopted to provide primary data for the study. Sekaran and Roger (2009) Define
questionnaire as an organised drafted sets of questions with closely define
options for the respondents to choose. Moreover Blaikie (2009) added that selfadministered questionnaire should be self-explanatory in the sense that
respondent may not demand any assistance while answering the questions,
apart from the conveying instructions. The questionnaire for this study is made
up of sections, with the first section in nominal scale form and the subsequent
sections of the survey instrument consist of Likert-type of questions in an ordinal
scale form.

4.0 RESULT PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION

4.1The Mediating Effects of Awareness (MV) between Familiarity and
Construction Project Cost performance.
From the model summary table 4.10 below shows the overall model is significant
given that p value is 0.0000 which is less than 0.05 with R 2 value of 0.9036
(Hayes, 2013).
Meanwhile the main model also shown on table 4.53 below shows a significant
relationship between familiarity and awareness that is the mediating variable
(MV) with p value of 0.0000 and a coefficient of determination of 1.2657 value,

as the p value is less than 0.05 showing significance relation along path a
(Hayes, 2013).

R
.9506

Consta
nt
Fmlrty

Table 4.10:- ID MV (Path a)

Model Summary
R-sq
MSE
F
Df1
.9036
.1141
3486.706
1.0000
7
Main Model
Coeff
Se
T
P
1.1717
0.1280
9.1563
0.0000
1.2657

0.0214

59.0483

0.0000

Df2
372.0000

P
0.000
0

LLCI
0.9200

LLCI
1.422
2
1.307
9

1.2236

4.6.2 Relationship between Familiarity and Construction cost

performance
while
controlling
the
Mediating
variable
awareness (Path b & C*)
Table 4.20 below presents the outcome of the model showing the relationship
along path b which is between the mediating variable awareness and the
dependent variable CstPerm. The overall model is significant having none zero
value between the df1 and df2 with p value of 0.0000 which is less than 0.05
and R2 value of 0.7354.
The main model outcome as shown also shows a significant relationship between
the mediating variable awareness and the dependent variable CstPerm with
a coefficient of determination value of 0.1326 and a p value of 0.0000 which is
less than 0.05 indicating significant relationship along path b.
Similarly the table shows the relationships between Fmlrty and CstPerm
dependent variable while controlling the mediating variable M, the coefficient of
determination obtained was 0.1812 and the p value is 0.0000 which is less than
0.05 showing a significance relationship along path C*

R
.8576

R-sq
.7354

Table 4.2:- ID1 DV (Path b & C*)

Model Summary
MSE
F
Df1
.0301
515.6828
2.0000

Df2
371.0000

P
0.0000

Constant
Awarenes
s
Fmlrty

4.3

Coeff
1.1717
0.1326

Se
0.1280
0.0266

0.1812

0.0354

Main Model
T
P
9.1563
0.0000
4.9831
0.0000
5.1138

0.0000

LLCI
0.9200
0.0803

LLCI
1.4222
0.1850

0.1116

0.2509

Relationship between Familiarity and Dependent

Construction cost performance (Total effect) path C

variable

Table 4.30 below shows the model outcome of the total effect of the direct
relationship between independent and the dependent variables. The overall
model is significant having none zero value between df1 and df2, with R 2 value of
0.7177 and a significant p value of 0.0000 which is less than 0.05 indicating a
significant relationship between the two variables
The main model shows a significant relationship between Familiarity and
Construction cost performance with a coefficient of determination of 0.3491
and a significant p value of 0.0000 which is less than 0.05 (Hayes, Baron and
Kenney).
Table 4.30:- ID1 DV (Path C)
Model Summary
MSE
F
Df1
.0320
945.9355 1.0000

R
.8472

R-sq
.7177

Constant

Coeff
0.8270

Se
0.0678

Fmlrty

0.3491

0.0114

Main Model
T
P
12.2044
0.0000
30.7561

0.0000

Df2
372.0000

P
0.000
0

LLCI
0.6938

LLCI
0.960
3
0.371
4

0.3268

4.6.4 Sobel Test

Besides the causal step approach method as presented above, result of Sobel
test as generated by the Process Macro is also considered and checked as well
to confirm the existence of the mediation as recommended by
(MacKinnon,
Lockwood, & Williams, 2004; Preacher & Hayes, 2004). Sobel test is based on the
standard normal distribution which considers p values and to check that the
indirect effect is not zero (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Hayes, 2013). Sobel test is
based on product of coefficient by estimating the standard error of ab
Sobel Test (Normal Theory test) = Z score test if c c =/ 0
From the result of Normal theory test for the indirect effect presented in table
4.40 below c c* = 0.1679 (0.3491 0.1812 = 0.1679). This indicates that the
value is different from zero thus proving the mediation occurrences, while Z =
4.9647 and P = 0.0000. The result from this test also confirm the existence of

mediation in the model with awareness proved to possesses a mediating effects

between familiarity and Construction cost performance factors.

Table 4.40:- Sobel Test Result of the first Model

Preacher and Kelley (2011) Kappa-squared
Effect
Boot SE
BootLLCI
BootULCI
Awarenes
.2381
.0576
0.1104
0.3397
s
Normal theory test for indirect effects
Effect
Se
Z
P
0.1679
0.0338
4.9647
0.0000

CONCLUSION
From the findings it can be concluded that familiarity was identified as factor
affecting compliance with public procurement guidelines which in turn affecting
construction project cost performance. awareness is proposed and tested as a
mediator

between

the

compliance

factor

and

construction

project

cost

performance, the result shows that awareness as a mediator has lessen the
effects of familiarity as one of the identified compliance factors on construction
project cost performance thus having fulfil the required condition partial
mediation has occurred. Therefore the study acknowledged the relevancy of
awareness among construction project procurement professionals, which in turn
will counter attacked the effects of the identified factors of compliance on
construction

project

cost

performances.

Consequently

recommends

that

awareness through training and workshops among the procurement stakeholders

be enhance especially on ethical conduct and practices among construction
procurement professionals

AKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding body of this research:
Universiti Sains Malaysia under the USM fellowship scheme 2015/2016.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abdullahi Nafiu Zadawa, PhD Candidate Universiti Sains Malaysia, is an Assistant
lecturer Department Quantity Surveying School of Environment Technology

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi Nigeria. His teaching and Research
interest are in Building procurement, Project Management, and Building cost
estimating.

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