Appraisal of Sustainable Procurement by Construction Firms in Ghana. Case Study of Sekondi-Takoradi.

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November 2016
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Abstract
Sustainable procurement plays a strategic role in safeguarding the environmental, economic and social impacts of the activities of an organization in a community. Over the years, Ghana has made significant progress with procurement management, infrastructure development and social development but sustainability issues remains one of the major drawbacks of current construction procurement practices and still not fully utilized in the Ghanaian construction industry. The aim of the current study was to investigate into the sustainable procurement practices by construction firms in the Ghanaian construction industry. The key drivers to the implementation of sustainable construction practices and the key challenges the firms encounter were among the issues addressed in the study. Using the Sekondi-Takoradi as a case study, a total of 60 questionnaires were administered to construction professionals who work with 30 construction firms. The data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 software package. The results revealed that the factors which drive or motivate construction firms in Ghana to embark on sustainable procurement are: the quest to promote corporate image, Government legislations and laws, corporate social responsibility considerations and value for money considerations. Moreover, the barriers to the implementation of sustainable procurement were: lack of basic education about sustainable procurement; lack of understanding of the sustainable procurement concept; low stakeholder education; lack of social drive; lack of client awareness and the absence of government interest in ensuring the promotion of sustainable procurement. From the study, it is recommended that public education on sustainability and enforcement of legislations should be intensified. Also, competitive bidding, e-procurement and information technologies should be encouraged to help achieve the aim of sustainable procurement among construction firms in Ghana.
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A Thesis submitted to the Department of Building Technology, College of Art and Built Environment in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
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