Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management

The significant factors causing delay of building construction projects in Malaysia

Wa'el Alaghbari Mohd. Razali A. Kadir Azizah Salim Ernawati
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Wa'el Alaghbari Mohd. Razali A. Kadir Azizah Salim Ernawati, (2007),"The significant factors causing delay
of building construction projects in Malaysia", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management,
Vol. 14 Iss 2 pp. 192 - 206
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192
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Engineering, Construction and
Architectural Management
Vol. 14 No. 2, 2007
pp. 192-206
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0969-9988
DOI 10.1108/09699980710731308
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0969-9988.htm
The significant factors causing
delay of building construction
projects in Malaysia
Wa’el Alaghbari, Mohd. Razali A. Kadir, Azizah Salim and
Ernawati
Architecture Department, Faculty of Design and Architecture,
University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose – The paper seeks to identify the major factors causing delay in building construction
projects in Malaysia.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was used to carry out the study. The
questionnaire consisted of 31 factors which were grouped into four major categories by responsibility
– contractor factors, owner factors, consultant factors and external factors. The level of importance of
the categories was measured and the relative importance of weights was ranked.
Findings – The study finds that financial problems are the main factor and coordination problems
are the second most important factor causing delay in construction projects in Malaysia. The results
were analyzed to rank the causes of delay and further classify the types of delay.
Research limitations/implications – The scope of this study is limited to building projects in the
Klang Valley area, where major Malaysian cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya,
Shah Alam and Seremban are located. The data for this study was gathered through a detailed
questionnaire survey.
Originality/value – Based on the analysis of the ranking and intensity of causes of delay, this paper
suggests possible improvements that could be made in order to reduce delays in the construction
industry.
Keywords Construction industry, Project management, Malaysia
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
As Malaysia progressively marches towards industrialization, the role of the
building industry is greatly enhanced, with the idea of transforming the aspirations
and needs of people into reality. There is thus an urgent need to mass-produce
quality housing that is affordable to all Malaysians. New and innovative approaches
and technology are needed in the design and construction of houses to enable the
nation to achieve this target (Ministry of Housing and Local Government, 1997). In
the Malaysian context, the Government’s policy on housing is that traditional
building practices must be replaced by an industrialized building system (IBS),
which could save on labour, cost and time of construction, and confer quality and
durability (Ismail, 2001).
Warszawski (1999) mentioned that the benefits of IBS when applied to a building
process include savings in manual labour on site (up to 40-50 percent of the input in
conventional construction), especially in skilled trades such as formwork, masonry,
 plastering, painting, carpentry, tiling, and pipe-laying (electrical and water supply). In Building
addition, IBS is a faster construction process, meaning earlier completion of building construction in
projects.
A clear understanding of the current status of IBSs will help to set housing Malaysia
programs under the 8th Malaysia Plan. The first step in any advance study on building
systems and their technology should be initiated by determining the status quo (Badir
and Kadir, 2002). 193
One of the most important problems in the construction industry is delays. Delays
occur in every construction project and the magnitude of these delays varies
considerably from project to project. Some projects are only a few days behind
schedule; some are delayed by over a year. So it is essential to define the actual causes
of delay in order to minimize and avoid delays in any construction project.
The successful execution of construction projects and keeping them within
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estimated cost and prescribed schedules depends on a methodology that requires

sound engineering judgment (Al-Moumani, 2000).

Objectives of the study

The main objective of this study is to identify the major causes of delays construction
projects in Malaysia using a survey. The primary aim is to identify the perceptions of
the different parties regarding the causes of delays, the allocation of responsibilities
and the types of delays.

Literature review
Delay is generally acknowledged as the most common, costly, complex and risky
problem encountered in construction projects. Because of the overriding importance of
time for both the owner (in terms of performance) and the contractor (in terms of
money), it is the source of frequent disputes and claims leading to lawsuits.
Delays occur in every construction project and the magnitude of these delays varies
considerably from project to project. Some projects are only a few days behind
schedule; some are delayed by over a year. So it is essential to define the actual causes
of delay in order to minimize and avoid delay in any construction project (Ahmed et al.,
2003).
There is a wide range of views on the causes of time delays for engineering and
construction projects. Some are attributed to a single party, others can be ascribed to
several quarters, and many relate more to systemic faults or deficiencies rather than to
a group or groups (Hancher and Rowings, 1981).
Many studies have been carried out to assess the causes of delay in construction
projects. Mansfield et al. (1994) studied the causes of delay and cost overrun in
construction projects in Nigeria. The results showed that the most important factors
are financing and payment for completed works, poor contract management, changes
in site conditions, shortage of materials, and improper planning.
Assaf et al. (1995) outlined the main causes of delays in large building projects and
their relative importance. In their study, they found that 56 causes of delay exist in
Saudi construction projects. The most important delay factors, according to the
contractors, were preparation and approval of drawings (delays in contractor’s
 ECAM progress, payment by owners and design changes). The views of the architects and
14,2 engineers were that delays were caused by cash problems during construction, the
relationship between the contractors and a slow decision-making process on the part of
the owners. Finally, the owners attributed delays to design errors, labour shortages
and inadequate labour skills.
Ogunlana and Promkuntong (1996) identified the causes of delays in construction
194 projects in Bangkok, Thailand and compared these with other delays and cost
overruns to determine whether there are special problems that generate delays. They
summarized the causes of delay in the construction industry as being in three problem
areas:
(1) problems of shortages or inadequacies in the industry infrastructure (mainly
supply of resources);
(2) problems caused by clients and consultants; and
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(3) problems caused by contractor incompetence/inadequacy.

Mezher and Tawil (1998) conducted a survey of the causes of delays in the construction
industry in Lebanon from the viewpoint of owners, contractors and
architectural/engineering firms. It was found that owners had more concerns with
regard to financial issues, contractors regarded contractual relationships as being the
most important, and consultants considered project management issues to be the most
important cause of delays.
Chan and Kumaraswamy (1998) surveyed the causes of construction delays in Hong
Kong as seen by clients, contractors and consultants, and examined the factors affecting
productivity. The survey revealed differences in perceptions of the relative significance
of factors including financing and payment for completed works, poor contract
management, changes in site conditions, shortage of materials, and improper planning.
Al-Moumani (2000) investigated the causes of delays on 130 public projects in
Jordan, and the results indicated that the main causes of delay in construction of public
projects relate to designers, user changes, weather, site conditions, late deliveries, and
economic conditions.
Frimpong and Oluwoye (2003) identified the significant factors that cause delay and
cost overruns in the construction of groundwater projects in Ghana. The results of the
survey indicated that all three groups felt that project financing, economic and natural
conditions and materials are the four major causes of delay and cost overrun. It was
shown that consultants, owners and contractors agree substantially on the ranking of
the categories of delay and cost overrun factors. It was also shown that all three groups
surveyed ranked the project financing category of delay and cost overrun factors
highest, while the labour category was ranked lowest.

Types of delay
Delays can be grouped in the following four broad categories according to how they
operate contractually:
(1) non-excusable delays;
(2) excusable non-compensable delays;
 (3) excusable compensable delays; and Building
(4) concurrent delays (Ahmed et al., 2003). construction in
Generally, delays can be divided into three major types, namely:
Malaysia
(1) excusable and non-excusable;
(2) compensable and non-compensable; and 195
(3) concurrent.

Compensable delays
Compensable delays are those that are generally caused by the owner or its agents. The
most common form of compensable delay is inadequate drawings and specifications,
but compensable delays can also arise from the owner’s failure to respond in a timely
fashion to requests for information or shop drawings, owner’s changes in design or
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materials, and owner’s disruption and/or change in the sequence of the work. The
contractor is entitled to both additional money and additional time resulting from
compensable delays (Alaghbari, 2005).

Non-excusable delays
Basically, these delays are caused by contractors or subcontractors or materials
suppliers, through no fault of the owner. The contractor might be entitled to
compensation from the delaying subcontractor or supplier, but no compensation is due
from the owner. Therefore, non-compensable delays usually result in no additional
money and no additional time being granted to the contractor (Alaghbari, 2005).

Excusable delays
Excusable delays, also known as “force majeure” delays, are the third general category
of delay. These delays are commonly called “acts of God” because they are not the
responsibility or fault of any particular party. Most contracts allow for the contractor
to obtain an extension of time for excusable delays, but not additional money
(Alaghbari, 2005).

Concurrent delays
If only one factor is delaying construction, it is usually fairly easy to calculate both the
time and money resulting from that single issue. A more complicated – but also more
typical – situation is one in which more than one factor delays the project at the same
time or in overlapping periods of time. These are called concurrent delays (Alaghbari,
2005).

Delay responsibility
Ahmed et al. (2003) claimed that the issue of responsibility for delay is related to
whether the contractor is awarded or is liable for costs and additional time to complete
the project. The categories of responsibilities are:
.
owner (or agent) responsible – contractor will be granted a time extension and
additional costs (indirect), where warranted;
 ECAM .
contractor (or subcontractor) responsible – contractor will not be granted time or
14,2 costs and may have to pay damages/penalties;
.
neither party (e.g. “act of God”) responsible – contractor will receive additional
time to complete the project but no costs will be granted and no
damages/penalties assessed; and
196 .
both parties responsible – contractor will receive additional time to complete the
project but no costs will be granted and no damages/penalties assessed.

Causes of delay
There are two kinds of cause for delay in construction projects:
(1) external causes; and
(2) internal causes.
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Internal causes of delay include the causes arising from four parties involved in the
project. These parties include the owner, designers, contractors, and consultants.
Other delays, which do not arise from these four parties, are based on external causes
for example from the government, materials suppliers, or the weather (Ahmed et al.,
2003).
Ahmed et al. (2003) and Alaghbari (2005) mentioned the possible following factors
causing delays in construction projects in Malaysia:
(1) Contractor’s responsibility:
.
delay in delivery of materials to site;
.
shortage of materials on site;
.
construction mistakes and defective work;
.
poor skills and experience of labour;
.
shortage of site labour;
.
low productivity of labour;
.
financial problems;
.
coordination problems with others;
.
lack of subcontractor’s skills;
.
lack of site contractor’s staff;
.
poor site management; and
.
equipments and tool shortage on site.
(2) Consultant’s responsibility:
.
absence of consultant’s site staff;
.
lack of experience on the part of the consultant;
.
lack of experience on the part of the consultant’s site staff; (managerial and
supervisory personnel);
.
delayed and slow supervision in making decisions;
 .
incomplete documents; and Building
.
slowness in giving instructions. construction in
(3) Owner’s responsibility: Malaysia
.
lack of working knowledge;
.
slowness in making decisions;
.
lack of coordination with contractors;
197
.
contract modifications (replacement and addition of new work to the project
and change in specifications); and
.
financial problems (delayed payments, financial difficulties, and economic
problems).
(4) External factors:
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.
lack of materials on the market;
.
lack of equipment and tools on the market;
.
poor weather conditions;
. poor site conditions (location, ground, etc.);
.
poor economic conditions (currency, inflation rate, etc.);
.
changes in laws and regulations;
.
transportation delays; and
.
external work due to public agencies (roads, utilities and public services).

Methodology
This section describes the procedure of data collection and the techniques used in the
survey.

Sampling frame of the study

The sample included many building system companies. The questionnaire was
distributed among government bodies, main contractors, consultants and developers
who were connected with the building systems of construction projects. In order to
accomplish this, the researchers contacted professional institutions, agents and
government bodies.

Questionnaire design
The questionnaire could be divided into sections, namely:
.
respondent’s background;
.
company information;
.
project information;
.
speed factors;
.
external factors;
. contractor factors;
 ECAM .
consultant factors; and
14,2 . owner factors.

Personal information regarding the respondents included academic qualifications,

working experience in construction building projects, job status, etc.
Other parts of the questionnaire gathered information on the building system and
198 its different properties. It focused on delay factors and so forth. Most of the questions
were of the closed type and were designed to elicit qualitative information. Codes were
provided beside the questions so that respondents and enumerators could
communicate in a convenient way.

Population and sampling size

The sample was restricted to building system companies. The respondents were
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contractors, consultant, developers, subcontractors, engineers and architects who were

involved in building system construction projects. A total of 450 questionnaires were
distributed by post and 78 samples were collected from the survey. The sample was
selected randomly. A simple random sampling procedure was employed to choose the
sample.
Of the 78 questionnaire sampled, 37 per cent were from contractors, 40 per cent were
from consultants, and 23 per cent from were developers and government bodies.

Data processing and analysis

All the collected information from the survey were checked and verified for their
correctness. Data cleaning was carried out by checking the frequency and descriptive
statistics as well as coding and data entry. The cleaned data were then analyzed to
obtain frequency, statistical descriptive analysis and variance. Multiple comparison
tests were carried out using SPSS 12.0.

Ranking delay factors

The respondents identified variables that they perceived as being likely to contribute
to factors influencing the speed of IBS and factors influencing delays in construction
building projects by responding on a scale from 1 (very important) to 4 (unimportant).
The four-point Likert rating scale was 1 ¼ very important, 2 ¼ important, 3 ¼ some
or less important, and 4 ¼ unimportant. This scale was chosen to avoid neutral
answers that do not provide information on very important or non-important issues.
The mean score (MS) for each factor was calculated using the following formula Chan
and Kumaraswamy, 1996; Lew et al., 2003):

P 
ð f £ sÞ
MS ¼ 42 ð1 # MS # 4Þ;
N

where MS is the mean score, f is the frequency of responses to each rating (1-4), s is the
score given to each factor by the respondents (ranges from 1 to 4), and N is the total
number of responses concerning that factor (78).
 Results and discussion Building
Delay is a serious problem in the construction industry. It is costly for both owners construction in
and constructors. Owners lose money by missing out on potential revenues from the
use of the project and through increased overheads for contract administration and
Malaysia
supervision. Contractor losses are due to increased costs in overheads and tied-up
capital (Al-Khalil and Al-Ghafly, 1999). Hence, determining the factors that cause
delays in construction projects is crucial. Tables I-IV present the results of the 199
analysis of the items of the general factors that cause delay in construction projects
in Malaysia. A total of 31 factors from the four categories were ranked according to

Factor Mean SD Rank

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Financial problems 1.44 0.68 1

Shortage of materials on site 1.67 0.75 2
Poor site management 1.67 0.87 2
Construction mistakes and defective work 1.71 0.69 3
Delay in delivery of materials to site 1.73 0.73 4
Coordination problems with others 1.83 0.71 5
Shortage of site labour 1.85 0.72 6
Low labour productivity 1.87 0.65 7
Poor skills and experience of labour 1.88 0.87 8 Table I.
Lack of subcontractor’s skills 1.96 0.84 9 Ranking of contractor’s
Lack of site contractor’s staff 2.10 0.75 10 factors causing delay in
Equipment and tool shortages on site 2.22 0.83 11 construction projects

Factors Mean SD Rank

Financial problems (delayed payments, financial

difficulties, and economic problems) 1.26 0.44 1
Slowness in making decisions 1.78 0.83 2
Contract modifications (replace and add new works Table II.
to the project; change in specifications) 1.87 0.81 3 Ranking of owner’s
Lack of coordination with contractor 1.95 0.75 4 factors causing delay in
Lack of working knowledge 2.05 0.87 5 construction projects

Factors Mean SD Rank

Supervision too late and slowness in making

decisions 1.62 0.61 1
Slow to give instructions 1.63 0.74 2
Lack of consultant’s experience 1.79 0.71 3
Incomplete documents 1.81 0.76 4 Table III.
Lack of consultant’s site staff experience (managerial Ranking of consultant’s
and supervisory personnel) 1.99 0.71 5 factors causing delay in
Absence of consultant’s site staff 2.22 0.94 6 construction projects
 ECAM the ranking of their mean values. The first category, contractor’s factors, included
14,2 the 12 factors presented in Table I. The second category, owner’s factors, included the
five factors presented in Table II. The third category, consultant’s factors, included
the six factors presented in Table III. The fourth category, external factors, included
the eight factors presented in Table IV.

200 Contractor’s factors causing delay in construction projects

Table I presents the results of factor analysis of the items of contractor’s factors that
cause delay in construction projects and their ranking as a whole. Based on the mean
value criterion, the first ranking seemed to capture the respondents’ general felling that
it is financial problems that are the major factor that causes delay in construction
projects. Statements such as the insolvency of unpaid workers, and subcontractor
deliveries of materials being on hold have the lowest mean value of 1.44.
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The factors “shortage of materials on site” and “poor site management” seem to be
the second-ranked factors that cause delays in construction projects in Malaysia.
Consequently, factors such as “construction mistakes”, “delays in the delivery of
materials to site” and “co-ordination problems” were ranked third, fourth, and fifth
respectively. The last three variables can be due to “equipment and tool shortages on
site”.
The next factor that causes delays in construction projects in Malaysia is on-site
labour. For instance, the factors “shortage of site labour”, “low labour productivity”
and “poor skill and experience of labour” have mean values of 1.85, 1.86 and 1.96,
respectively, and are ranked sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
The last factors due to contractors that cause delay in construction projects includes
“lack of subcontractor’s skills” and “lack of site contractors’ staff”, which show mean
values of 1.96 and 2.10, respectively, and are ranked ninth and tenth.

Owner’s factors causing delay in construction projects

The owner of the project is also considered to be a factor that can cause delay in
projects. Table II presents the result of data analysis of the items on the owner’s part
that cause delay in construction projects. As on the contractor’s side, financial
problems such as delayed payments, financial difficulties, and economic problems

Factors Mean SD Rank

Lack of materials on the market 1.63 0.76 1

Poor site conditions (location, ground, etc.) 2.01 0.80 2
Lack of equipment and tools on the market 2.12 0.88 3
Poor weather conditions 2.12 0.85 3
Transportation delays 2.12 0.82 3
External work due to public agencies (roads, utilities,
Table IV. public services) 2.23 0.94 4
Ranking of external Poor economic conditions (currency, inflation rate,
factors causing delay in etc.) 2.27 0.95 5
construction projects Changes in laws and regulations 2.54 0.92 6
 seem to be the major owner factor that causes delay in construction projects in Building
Malaysia. The results presented in Table II show that financial problems are ranked construction in
first.
The management ability of the project’s owner is the second important factor Malaysia
causing delay in construction projects. All the respondents seem to agree that
“slowness in making decision” on the part of the owner of the project is an important
factor that causes delays in construction projects. It is ranked second, with a mean 201
value 1.78.
The factor “contract modification: replacement and addition of new work to the
project, change in specifications” is ranked as the third factor that causes delay in
construction projects in Malaysia. The factors “lack of coordination with contractor”
and “lack of working knowledge” on the part of the owner are ranked fourth and fifth,
with mean values of 1.95 and 2.05, respectively.
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Consultant’s factors causing delay in construction projects

As consultants are very important in construction projects, this factor is also
considered to be one of the most important factors that can cause delays in
construction projects. Table III presents the results of the analysis of items of the
consultant factors that cause delays in construction projects.
Table III implies that the first component that seemed to capture the respondents’
general attention was “supervision too late”. The factors “slow to give instructions”
and “lack of consultant’s experience” are the second and third factors causing delay in
construction projects.
The next factor refers to the respondents’ preception of weakness in consultant
management as a factor that cause delays in construction projects. For example, the
factors “incomplete documents”, “lack of consultant’s experience” and “absence of
consultant’s site staff” were ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively.

External factors causing delay in construction projects

The results of the data analysis of the external factors that cause delay in projects are
presented in Table IV. Based on the mean values presented in Table IV, the most
important external factors causing delay in construction projects are lack of materials
and lack of equipment and tools. The factor “lack of materials on the market” was
ranked first. Construction projects are physical projects, and the timely availability of
materials is very important.
The factor ranked second in Table IV is “poor site conditions (such as locations,
ground, etc.)”. The importance of poor site conditions is the same as the lack of
materials and lack of equipment and tools, since poor site conditions may determine
whether the speed of a project is fast or slow.
The factors of “lack of equipment and tools on the market”, “poor weather
conditions” and “transportation delays” are ranked third as factors that cause delays in
construction projects. This finding implies that climatic conditions are considered an
important factor that causes delays in construction projects in Malaysia. Climatic
conditions can influences whether the project proceeds quickly or slowly. Singh and
Huat (2003) argued that construction projects offer the opportunity to incorporate
 ECAM climatic factors into the building system. Consequently, it is necessary to carry out
14,2 multidisciplinary research that extends into the relationship between people and the
environment, specific studies of building types, and incorporating architectural history
and heritage. This implies that the environment is a very important factor in
construction projects.
Transportation delays are also considered an important external factor that causes
202 delay in construction projects. Transportation is a very crucial condition that should be
on time in projects. It is the factor responsible for the transportation of the materials,
equipment, and tools that are needed in projects, and in this study, it is ranked third.
Moreover, the factors “external work due to public agencies (roads, utilities and
public services)” and “poor economic conditions (currency, inflation rate, etc.)” are
considered as the next ranked external factors that cause delay in construction
projects. They were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. This finding can be
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understood since the “external work due to public agencies (roads, utilities and public
services)” and “poor economic conditions (currency, inflation rate, etc.)” are not to be
considered to be an issue in Malaysia. This implies that the laws and regulations are
not the major factors that cause delays in construction projects. This is due to the
Malaysian Government, which has created a very conducive environment for
investment. Recent Malaysian Government policies have made the country an
attractive place for investors. The Government has been very supportive and
responsive in its pro-business policies and liberal investment policies. Malaysia also
offers a wide range of tax incentives projects under the Promotion of Investment Act
1986 and Income Tax 1967.
This condition is supported by the fact that “poor economic conditions” and
“changes in laws and regulations” were ranked sixth.

Ranking the top ten factors causing delay in construction projects and the responsibilities
Table V presents the result of analysis of the items of the general factors that cause
delay in construction projects in Malaysia. A total of 31 factors causing delay in

Factors Mean SD Ranking Responsible

Financial difficulties and economic problems 1.26 0.44 1 Owner

Financial problems 1.44 0.68 2 Contractor
Supervision too late and slowness in making 1.62 0.61 3 Consultant
decisions
Slow to give instructions 1.63 0.74 4 Consultant
Lack of materials on market 1.63 0.76 4 External
Poor site management 1.67 0.75 5 Contractor
Materials shortages on site 1.67 0.75 5 Contractor
Construction mistakes and defective work 1.71 0.69 6 Contractor
Table V. Delay in delivery of materials to site 1.73 0.73 7 Contractor
Ranking of the top ten Slowness in making decisions 1.78 0.83 8 Owner
factors causing delay in Lack of consultant’s experience 1.79 0.71 9 Consultant
construction projects Incomplete documents 1.81 0.76 10 Consultant
 construction projects, grouped into four categories by responsibility, were ranked Building
according to the ranking of their mean values. Table V presents only the top ten factors construction in
and their rankings. It is clear from Table V that in terms of responsibility for delays,
contractors are the first-ranked cause, followed by consultants, owners, and finally
Malaysia
external factors.
Though this finding seems to be different from that of Al-Khalil and Al-Ghafly
(1999), who determined who was responsible for delaying public utility projects in 203
Saudi Arabia. In their study, the owner of the project was ranked first, followed the
contractor and consultant. This may be due to the different kinds of projects and the
different conditions in each country. But this finding is in line with the study conducted
by Odeh and Battaineh (2002), which found that both contractors and consultants were
ranked as the main factors that cause delays in construction. The consultant side is
mainly concerned with technical factors such as inadequate contractor experience,
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delays caused by subcontractors and improper planning, while contractors are more
concerned with managerial and operational issues such as site management and
construction methods.
In this study, the contractor can be considered as being mainly responsible for
factors that results in the delay of construction projects. Five of the top ten factors that
cause delay in construction projects are the contractor’s responsibility. For example,
the factor “financial problems” had a mean value of 1.44 and was ranked second, while
the “shortage of materials” was ranked fifth. “Poor site management” was ranked fifth,
“construction mistakes and defective works” was ranked sixth and “delay in the
delivery of materials to site” was ranked seventh.
Moreover, the respondents’ response is that the second component causing delay in
construction projects in Malaysia is due to consultant factors. Consultant’s
responsibility contributes to about four factors of the top ten factors that cause
delay in construction projects. The factors “supervision too late: slowness in decision
making” and “slow to give instructions” were ranked third and fourth, while the factor
“lack of consultant’s experience” was ranked ninth, and the factor “incomplete
documents” was ranked tenth.
The third factor causing delay in construction projects is due to owner’s
responsibility. “Financial difficulties”, for example, was ranked first, whereas
“slowness in decision making” was ranked eighth. Even though only one of the
external factors affects delay in construction projects, it is ranked first among the top
ten problems. Finally, the last factor that causes delay in construction projects comes
from external factors. Only one factor – “lack of materials on the market” – can be
considered as a factor causing delay in construction projects.
Turning to the overall ranking results from the data analysis, the findings of this
study are the same as the those Frimpong and Oluwoye (2003), who determined that
financial problems are the main factor that affects delays in the construction of
groundwater project in Ghana. In the present study, financial problems seem to be the
first major factor causing delay in construction projects in Malaysia.
Co-ordination problems are the second important factor that causes delay in
construction projects, followed by the materials problem such as the ones shown by
 ECAM Frimpong and Oluwoye (2003). Plant equipment is considered an important factor that
14,2 causes delay in construction projects.

Conclusion
The important issue focused on in this study is the delay of construction projects. Since
204 delays are considered to be a serious problem in the construction industry for both
owners and constructors, this study examines the factors that cause delay in
construction projects in Malaysia. The results of the analysis show that from a total of
31 variables examined, separated into four categories by responsibility, the major
factors causing delay in construction projects are factors due to the contractor,
followed by factors due to the consultant, factors due to the owner, and finally external
factors. The main finding of this study is that the financial factor is the most
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influencing factor in causing delay in construction projects in Malaysia. Coordination

problems are considered the second important factor causing delay in construction
projects, followed by materials problems.
Further examination of factors causing delay in construction projects in Malaysia
based on four categories – contractor, consultant, owner, and external factors – the
study shows that on the contractor’s side, financial problems are the major factor in
delaying construction projects. Poor site management and, as a consequence,
construction mistakes, delay in the delivery of materials to the site, and coordination
problem were the subsequent factors causing delay in construction projects in
Malaysia. The next most important factors causing delay in construction projects in
Malaysia come from the labour side, and finally the contractor’s side, summarized by
“lack of subcontractor’s skills” and “lack of site contractor’s staff”.
This study also shows that the main factor on the owner’s side causing delay in
construction projects is financial problems. The management ability of the project’s
owner is the second important factor causing delay in construction projects. From the
consultant’s side, the first component that seems to be the cause of delay in construction
projects is ineffective or lack of supervision, followed by “slowness in giving
instructions” and “lack of consultant’s experience”. Weakness in consultant management
is the next most important factor that causes delay in construction projects.
Finally, the most important external factor causing delay in construction projects is
lack of materials and lack equipment and tools. The next most important factor is poor
site conditions (location, ground, etc.), followed by a lack of equipment and tools on the
market, poor weather conditions and transportation delays.

Recommendation
Based on the findings and discussions of the study, it is recommended that financial
support and technical support are a very necessary and urgent step for construction
investments, since the results of the analysis show that financial problems are the
major factor causing delay in construction projects. Technical support is also
necessary since the study shows that coordination problems are the second major
factor causing delays in construction projects in Malaysia.
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 ECAM About the authors
Wa’el A. Moghni Al-Aghbari obtained a BSc in Architectural Engineering in 1995. He has
14,2 worked as a Lecturer in the Architecture Department, Engineering Faculty, Sana’a University,
Yemen. He obtaied a MSc in Project Management in 2005. Currently he is a PhD Candidate in
Architecture Studies, Faculty of Design and Architecture, University Putra Malaysia. Wa’el
A. Moghni Al-Aghbari is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
wail42311@yahoo.com
206 Mohd. Razali Abdul Kadir is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Housing
Research Center (HRC), Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University Putra
Malaysia.
Azizah Salim is an Associate Professor. She is also Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Design and
Architecture, University Putra Malaysia.
Ernawati is a post-doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Economics and Management,
University Putra Malaysia.
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