Influence of Project Cost Control on Successful Completion of County Funded Road Construction Projects in Bomet County, Kenya

Abstract

Road construction projects in Bomet County face several challenges that hinder the successful completion. According to the Auditor General's report by the year 2018-2019, only twenty five road projects were successfully completed and more than half of the completed were sub-standard and their costs escalated. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of project cost control on the successful completion of county funded road construction in Bomet County-Kenya. This study adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population was 98 technical employees in the given departments in Bomet County:  Finance, Roads and Transport, Procurement and Monitoring and Evaluation departments. Census technique was employed since the target population was fairly small. Thus, in the study all the 98 staff were involved in the study. The study used a closed ended questionnaire to collect primary data from the respondents. The study was guided by theory of constraints. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The findings of the study established that there exists a positive and statistically significant relationship (r = 0.605; p=0.000) between cost control and successful completion of county funded road construction projects in Bomet County.  The study recommends that county project teams should always asses the resource requirement for individual activities. Project payments be made promptly so to avoid attraction of interest which results into cost escalation.