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Assessment Of The Survival Practices Of Quantity Surveying Firms In A Recessed Economy
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Through the construction industry, the Government is able to provide
adequate public infrastructures for its citizens. According to Oluba
(2008) public infrastructure touches on a wide range of basic amenities,
which enhance the capacity of economic agents to conveniently engage in
productive activities with reduced stress levels. However, in the
delivery of these public infrastructures, several participants are
brought together. According to Alintal-Abel and Nnadi (2015) there are
diverse interests in the construction industry with the principal actors
being the client, the consultant and contractors. In the realization of
a construction project, consultants and contractor are brought together
to satisfy the desire of the client. According to Munns (1996)
construction project involves three groups of people who are brought
together for a temporary period in which they are expected to work
together towards a mutual goal. This group includes the client, the
consultants and construction contractors. The role of the Client is to
instigate the project set goals, determine the constraint to work
within, and provide the required financial recourses to ensure the
projects goals. The Contractor is responsible for converting the plan
into final reality while the Consultant is expected to convert the
client requirement into a proposal that can be achieved within any
constraint set by the client (Salami and Mustapha, 2015).
One of such
consultants whose role in the delivery of construction projects cannot
be over emphasized is the Quantity Surveyor. Ashworth and Hogg (2000)
described a Quantity Surveyor as a person that cost designs and produce
procurement and construction documents. Ojo (2011a) further stated that a
Quantity Surveyor estimate and manage the cost of construction
projects. A practicing Quantity Surveyor is mostly found in Quantity
Surveying Firms (QSFs) which are service based firms providing
consultancy, financial and allied management services to their clients
(Abidin, Yusof, Hassan and Adros, 2011). Oyediran (2011) views QSFs as
knowledge based firm because quantity surveyors sell knowledge and not
physical product when in operation. It is noteworthy that this knowledge
is transformed into service that gets delivered to clients
eventually.
Thus, with the present downturn in the Nigeria economy
which is as a result of the decline in the price of crude oil and other
associated factors (Sanusi, 2010; Eboh, 2015; National Bureau of
Statistics 2015), which is bound to have a negative effect on the
construction industry (Ogbu, 2017) it is necessary to assess the
survival practices of Quantity Surveying firms whose role in the
construction industry is crucial. This shall be done with a view to
identifying possible ways to help Quantity Surveying Firms survive in
times of recession
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Eboh (2015)
observed that the Nigerian economy currently faces difficulties due to
the decline in crude oil prices in the international market. Added to
this is the huge burden of payment of subsidies to petroleum products
importers mounting to billions of Naira and to make things worse, there
have been a constant political drift away from the due process were
construction contact allocation is awarded only to political and
government agent thereby back beating professionals such as the Quantity
Surveyors and as such driving these professionals / construction firms
into adopting other measures of survival in order to remain in business.
In 2014 alone, N971.1 billion ($4.88 billion) was budgeted for subsidy
payments. The repercussions of these have been the sharp decline in
revenues accruing to the federation. Up to 8.97% of Nigeria’s GDP is
accounted for by proceeds from oil and gas industry activities, and
crude oil earns more than 90% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange (Sanusi
2010; National Bureau of Statistics 2015). As a result, fluctuations in
revenues from this source have grave implications for the survival of
construction practitioners in Nigeria as the government remains the
biggest client of the construction industry in Nigeria (Aniekwu,
Anthony, Kehinde, 2014). Not only that, private sector clients of the
construction industry are equally linked to government expenditure;
thus, a decline in Nigeria’s national income has both direct and
indirect effects on the survival of construction practitioners (Quantity
surveyors inclusive) and this could influence their mortality rate
(Ogbu, 2017).
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