Civil Engineering October 2021 | Vol 29 No 9

Civil Engineering October 2021 23 three criteria simultaneously to deliver a successful project. While these are widely accepted as the criteria for project success, Els et al. (2012) investigated the most crucial project success criteria in South Africa using four measures, namely quality, stakeholders’ appreciation, time and cost. These were ranked based on level of importance, and the results showed that the quality of the project ranks highest, followed by stake- holders’ appreciation, time, and then cost. Factors influencing project failure El-Sokhn and Othman (2014) define pro- ject failure as time and cost overrun such that the project loses economic justifica- tion and is not completed. It is the failure to meet the objectives (quality, time, cost and scope). It is easier to point out what made a project successful than to point out what caused it to fail. Failure usually cannot be attributed to one factor only, but rather to a few mistakes or instances of ignorance that accumulate, unobserved, until it is too late to reverse the process. Abbasi et al. (2014) identify the most common failure factors in most projects as lack support by senior management, unclear project objectives, scope creep, gaps in communication, and lack of transparency. Okereke (2017) investigated the rea- sons for project failure on eight projects spread across the African continent. The main reasons for failure were found to be corruption, a lack of skilled or experienced resources, failure to include the local community in planning, project implementation issues, operations, and minimal arrangements for the project deliverables’ maintenance and operation. According to Okereke (2017), corrup- tion is the root of project failures in Africa. This is primarily the case with government projects because they often employ many unqualified individuals to manage projects. Ika and Saint-Macary (2014) found that projects fail in developing countries because of mismanagement, lack of competency or knowledge in project man- agement, corruption, as well as poor policy planning and implementation. Similarly, Damoah et al. (2015) found the following reasons for projects failure in developing countries: corruption, inadequate moni- toring, political interference, bureaucracy, change in government, lack of continuity, fluctuation of prices, the slow release of payment, and planning funds disburse- ment. Several other scholars concur that corruption, poor management and political interference stand out as the most common reasons for project failure in Africa. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The main objective of this research project was to distinguish the extent of failure in South African municipal projects using different success criteria as a benchmark, and then to identify the major causes leading to these failures. To achieve this, data was collected by means of anonymous questionnaires distributed to consultants, contractors, project man- agers, consulting engineers and other built environment professionals across South Africa who have experience working on projects overseen by both metropolitan and district municipalities. South Africa is home to a population of over 59 million and the country com- prises 278 municipalities, of which eight are metropolitan municipalities, 44 are district municipalities, and 226 are local municipalities. The government conducts numerous projects through these munici- palities based on the needs of communities identified through the IDP process. For primary data collection, a structured questionnaire was used. The questionnaire targeted experienced professionals who have worked on mu- nicipal projects and included contractors and consultants who have worked as project managers on municipal projects. A screening question was placed at the beginning of the electronic questionnaire to block responses from participants who did not meet the criteria of municipal project participation experience. The questionnaire received 101 re- sponses, of which 74 were valid for analysis. These were respondents who had met the screening question criteria, and their ques- tionnaires were complete with no errors. These questionnaires were analysed using frequency distribution, simple percentages, mean item scores and mean scores. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Respondents’ demographic profile Table 1 provides a summary of the demographic information obtained from the survey respondents. The survey had 82% male respondents and 18% female respondents, reflecting the ratio of males to females in the field of engineering in South Africa. Respondents were asked to state the roles they occupied during their participa- tion in municipal projects. The majority of respondents (32%) indicated that they were consultants, while 21% and 19% were con- tractors and project managers respectively. Moreover, 11% were client representatives, 8% were built environment professionals, 4% were trainees in their respective fields, 3% were suppliers, and only 2% were sub- contractors. This distribution reflects the major role consultants play in delivering municipal projects. The majority of respondents (63%) fall within the age group of 20 to 30 years, followed by 27% in the 31 to 40 years cat- egory, 7% in the 41 to 50 years age group, and only 3% above 50 years. Furthermore, 95% of respondents are degree holders, while the remaining 5% hold a higher certificate. The respondents’ years of experience working on municipal projects show a majority of professionals with less than 10 years of working experience in this field. 80% of respondents fall within this group while the remaining 20% has more than 10 years’ working experience. 46% of the respondents indicated that they are registered as candidates with their respective professional bodies, fol- lowed by 31% who are not registered and 23% who are professionally registered. Finally, a breakdown of the total valua- tion of the municipal projects that the respondents participated in shows that the largest proportion of them (47%) worked on projects over R50 million. Moreover, 29% and 24% worked on projects valued at less than R10 million and those between R10 million and R50 million, respectively. Project management success criterion Respondents were asked to identify which of the three major project management success criteria (quality, time and cost) had the most severe impact on municipal project failure. Figure 1 shows that time is considered the most influential criterion with a selection average of 53%. This is followed by cost at 36% and quality at 11%. Time and cost overruns are known to be worldwide problems. In the research by Els et al. (2012), which investigated the level of importance of the success criteria when working towards project completion in South Africa, it was clear that the quality of the project outcome