Framework to reduce variation processing time in public projects

Abstract

The process of administering variation orders is an integral part of construction project management. This process is time consuming and if not organized or streamlined, may result into delays. According to the Auditor General Report, they have found out, the issue of delay in processing the variation order usually occurred in most of the public projects. Necessary improvement should take place to address this issue holistically. Therefore, this research attempt to develop a framework that able to reduce the variation processing time for public projects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with construction professionals that involved directly in processing the variation works in public projects to obtained a relevant data. The findings show that there are five (5) main stages in managing the variation in public projects which is identifying the variation, analysing and evaluating the variation, approval, implementation and review. The major improvement can be seen during the approval process in the third stage. During this stage the variation in principal is being introduced to cater the variation works for the critical and urgent activities. Besides that, the financial limits of the existing committee to approve the variation works to be revised and the time limit for variation assessment especially during the cost determination is to be introduce. Lastly the redundancy process in variation assessment should be eliminated. By considering all these factors, the framework to reduce the variation processing time is developed. This framework would be able to streamline and redefine the variation process in public projects and subsequently reduce the variation processing time.