Construction procurement system is the organizational framework adopted by the client

for the management of design and construction of a project. With the introduction of
new and innovative ways of construction, many new and alternative procurement
systems have been developed over the past decades. These systems could be used to
meet contemporary requirements of the clients. Different procurement systems are used
for different projects and the correct choice may help to avoid problems and be the key
to the attainment of project specific goals.
From the clients point of view, there are probably only three basic criteria which include
cost, time and quality. Hence, traditional procurement selection processes result in
clients prioritizing the basic criteria of Time, Cost, and Quality.

The lack of structured procedures, based on good information, for the selection of
construction procurement system sometimes inhabit the opportunity for client to choose
a procurement option in a fully informed manner.

Each project in the industry has its own characteristics and the project to be success the
procurement method must address the technical features of the project alongside the
clients and contractors needs. The selection of suitable procurement method is critical
to the success of any project.

Procurement selection

Several previous studies have identified number of factors influencing the selection of
procurement system in construction. They have focused on selection factors in terms of
Client characteristics, Project requirements and External environment.

From the synthesis of the outcome of past studies, overall factors affecting the
procurement selection can be grouped under three main criteria. The Figure portrays the
conceptual framework developed based on the projects environments which determine
the selection criteria
There have been several models developed with the intention of facilitating the selection
of suitable procurement system for a particular project. Among the various models, Multi
Attribute Utility Technique (MAUT) received the greatest attention.

One of strongest criticisms was the selection of procurement variables. The other is the
utility value developed through opinions of industry experts.

Methodology
The use of Multi Attribute Decision Analysis has been considered the foremost technique
for examining client needs and weighting of preferences from experts for each
procurement, but the major difficulty with these selection systems lies in the lack of
consensus among the experts on the utility factors.

To overcome above deficiencies, the Delphi technique was adopted. Delphi method is a
highly formalized method of communication that is designed to extract the maximum
amount of unbiased information from a panel of experts.

The success of the Delphi method principally depends on the careful selection of the
panel of experts. In order to meet all stipulated requirements and to increase efficiency
of the outcomes, the sample size was selected to have upper limit of the reliable sample
size (15- 35) of the Delphi technique.

Thirty five (35) members of panel represent wide distribution of professionals from
several disciplines including Project Management, Quantity Surveying, and Engineering
from consultant & contractor organizations both in public and private sectors.
 The Purposive selective sampling has been used as the appropriate sampling method for
this research, because the information obtained from experts required in depth
knowledge and sound experience on various procurement options. A group of experts,
who have relevant working experience in the field of construction management and
procurement selection, were selected to get the opinion on selection criteria and their
level of influence on various procurement systems in construction.

The following Table gives the profile of the experts involved in the survey

The Table 2 presents the formats of Delphi survey carried out in four rounds and briefly
introduces the data evaluation techniques used to analyze the data collected from the
survey

Findings
Review of literature in Delphi round one.
In the second round level of importance of each factor was considered.
Third round targeted to derive the utility values
 fourth round comprised with the average utility values

The questionnaire used in fourth round comprised with the average utility values derived
from 25 experts for each factors against various procurement systems. The respondents
were asked to reconsider the results of round three in order to improve the consistency
of the results. There were 23 out of 25 questionnaires received in the fourth round and
they were considered for the analysis at the end of fourth round.

Clients requirements

Utility values of all nine factors were sufficiently consistent at 0.05 level of significance or
smaller. Further, concordance coefficient (w) ranges between 0.08 0.46 for certain
factors indicating less strong agreement among experts during round three. The
concordance coefficient ranges between 0.59 0.74 indicate the strong agreement
among experts at the fourth round of Delphi. The concordance analysis shows that the
consistency of the experts ranking for procurement systems against each factor has
improved over the succeeding round.
Therefore, it can be concluded that all nine factors significantly influence the
procurement selection practices.

Project Characteristics
Utility values of all six factors were sufficiently consistent at 0.05 level of significance or
smaller. Further, concordance coefficient (w) ranges between 0.29 0.38 for all six
factors indicate less strong agreement among experts during Delphi round three. The
concordance analysis shows that the consistency of the experts ranking for procurement
systems against each factor has improved over the successive round.
The coefficient of concordance for all six factors improved from 154.64% to 581.644%.
In this round, six factors were considered sufficiently consistent compared to previous
round. The results shows that the experts had overcome the difficulty in assessing the
factor such as Project type, since the significance improved lesser than 0.05 (? reduced
from 0.2613 to 0.0000 in the successive rounds).

External Environment
With respect to the external environment, utility values of all five factors were
sufficiently consistent at 0.05 level of significance or smaller. On the other hand, the
correlation between the experts regarding the external environmental factors has also
been increased. These external environmental factors have either direct or indirect
influence on the selection and use of the procurement systems. Therefore, in assessing
the suitability of a procurement system, the underplaying relationships of external
environment need to be considered to avoid the consequences in decision making.

Conclusion
An exclusive set of multiple decisive factors in terms of main three criteria: Clients
requirements & objectives, Project characteristics and External Environment, have been
identified as being generally adequate for the procurement selection and there is a
reasonable consensus on utility values for each procurement system.
This study has used Delphi technique to ensure that the consensus is reached for the
utility values provided by the panel of experts/practitioners from the industry. The
synthesis of the outcome of the survey demonstrates intensely that there is a significant
improvement in the consistency of the utility values over the successive Delphi rounds.

From this study it was found that all identified factors in terms of clients requirements
and project characteristics have greater level of influence on procurement selection. The
importance and interrelationships of identified significant factors and the utility values
provide a good background for the development of procurement selection criteria for any
kind of project scenario. The selection criteria should be logically derived from projects
internal and external environment.