The construction sector is the second most important sector in the Ethiopian economy in terms of creating many works for citizens and contributing to the national economy. The industry, following the country’s economic development, is also flourishing significantly. However, as it is said repeatedly, it is challenged by multiple of problems.
Oromia Construction Authority (OCA), in this regard, is inexorably working to solve the challenges exhibited in the industry, and enable the industry to flourish. OCA is established there years ago with clear duties and responsibilities of shaping the performance of various projects in the State. In order to discuss this and other similar issues, The Ethiopian Herald has recently held talks with Mesay Daniel (PhD), Director General the Authority (OCA). Excerpts!
Ethiopian Herald: What are the achievements the Authority has registered in the past six months?
Messay: There is nothing I can count as achievement in the previous six months. Of course, with regard to our annual plan, we are working closely with the relevant stakeholders, bureaus and government enterprises. However, what we call achievement should not be success in the processes. Success is when there are tangible solutions for our problems in the construction industry and when there is visible change as well. The changes we strive for in the construction sector is bringing quality to the projects and completing projects on scheduled time with reasonable cos. More time is needed to achieve this, and OCA is working on it.
Ethiopian Herald: Would you please state the relations OCA has with other stakeholders
Messay: In fact, the construction industry faces challenges. To take the right action, identifying the extent of the problem is very important, starting from analyzing why buildings to mega projects are not completed in time. Therefore, to curb the challenges, we must reach out to all responsible parties who have a share to the best solution. Therefore, we are working closely with project owners, contractors, consultants, and professional association.
Ethiopian Herald: How do you put the commitment of OCA to flourish the industry and support it renders to various firms?
Messay: OCA is determined to make radical change in the construction industry. On top of this, it will focus on issues related to preparation works, design review and capacity development on project management as well as application of different tools for design and construction.
Project owners should give due attention for project preparation. There should be good plan on how to handle projects with respect to their budget and management capacity. Some bureaus are very ambitious to run many projects even without having proper consultant to supervise their projects. This is causing drastic failure on projects all together. Therefore, OCA is committed to direct project owners, if they need to launch a new project.
Some project owners are also reluctant to hire competent consultants to prepare and design projects and supervise the construction progression. OCA is now insisting project owners to hire consultants who execute those activities and be accountable if there is any failure on the project.
The other visible gap in the construction industry is related to professional ethics and issues related to capacity. The country must work on professional ethics at grass root level (from kindergarten to higher institutions). The new generation has the right to know how to prosper without violating social values and professionalism, instead of illegal shortcuts. OCA is committed to work on establishing better system that reduces such problems. But, this is something which needs to get focus at national level.
The other aspect is enforcement of laws where there is breach of agreements and wishful acts.
OCA is highly committed to capacitating the young generation to take over the construction industry and transform it to higher standard. To this effect, a number of capacity development activities are planned especially in application of technology in the construction industry.
Ethiopian Herald: What are the challenges the Bureau has faced in the previous six months?
Messay: One of the responsibilities of OCA is approving design. There is a big challenge related to poor design. Some say it is related to design codes, mentioning unavailability of design standard. For instance, water structure design. But, there are lots of other designs related issues, even though there is a recently revised code.
The case is also the same in relation to design of roads. In my opinion, the main source of problems linked to design are lack of commitment to work on it based on the functionalities, clients’ interest, the Terms of Reference (ToR), site condition and other essential activities. Especially designs coming from government office have huge gaps. Most our engineers and architects also need to update themselves with the current technology and tools, which reduce efforts.
Likewise, I need to mention the issue of projects running year to year endlessly. This is related to poor contract administration and weak follow up by both the consultant and the contractor. In collaboration with Ethiopian Construction Management Institute, we are giving short-term trainings on contract administration for our experts drawn from zones and towns. This might help to highlight action that need to be taken contractually.
Delayed projects are incurring extra cost on the shoulder of the government. The more they delay, the more they get complicated to provide solution. Some projects are expired and thus their original contract document is already expired. We advise our clients on these kinds of problems; but such problems are still challenging OCA.
OCA is engaged in framing well designed documents how projects should be managed to higher decision makers. The leadership has acknowledged the danger thoroughly the industry had been and working the Authority. I am certain that there is no ways to do business as usual fashion in the manner the contractors used to.
Oromia State has greater ambition to transform the industry and let each construction firms abide by the principles of professionalism and stick to nation’s vision. In fact, the challenges could not be solved over night. We, however, are working with all pertinent stakes to curtail the challenges the construction industry faces and to thrive it.
The Ethiopian Herald February 20/2019
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
