A Study of Risk Factors Affecting Construction Project Execution in the Central Region of Ghana.

: The construction industry is one of the most dynamic, risky, and challenging businesses. The number of risks present invariably goes beyond those found in other industries. The research was conducted with the aim of exploring the various risk factors affecting late execution of construction projects in the Central region of Ghana. Purposive sampling technique was used to select thirty (30) contractors of on-going projects for the study. Questionnaire was used to illicit information from the participants. Findings of the research revealed that financial, economic as well as political risk are the major factors contributing to late execution of construction projects in the central region of Ghana. The conclusion drawn from the research indicated a lot of projects have not been completed. A thorough feasibility studies should be undertaken before any project is done .


Government influence on construction Projects in Central Region.
In developing countries like Ghana, most of the construction projects are politically motivated and viewed by many as additions to satisfy public demand. Many roads are left at the mercy of politicians and according to Agyakwa-Baah (2009), it is the ultimate goal of government to lead and fast-track infrastructure project the society and moreover, the performance of the government is assessed in the developing countries by developmental projects. This creates unnecessary pressure on government to start something which will be terminated because it is not accommodated in the government's budget. For instance, a 10 km Road rehabilitation that was started in 2016 electioneering year at Komenda in the KEEA Municipality has pass through three different contractors' hands yet they could not execute the project. It was argued by De la Cruz et al. (2006), that, winning political scores leads to unplanned infrastructure development which lacks the necessary funding and required coordination of such projects.

Environmental Risk Factors that Affect Construction Project.
These risks associated with the natural environment has to do with the weather and this factor is hardly experience in Ghana such as harsh weather condition like typhoon or tornados but the two seasonal changes are witness in Ghana such as the wet and dry seasons. De la Cruz et al. (2006). The New sugar factory at Komenda is at the mercy of the weather as Komenda is a coastal town. The sea breeze is affecting the equipment and moreover the rainfall pattern is not the best. This has affected a few sugar cane that were nursed. The central coastline sea defense project has paved way for the tidal wave to affect the other communities that are not part of the project.

Technical Risk Factors
Moreover, technical incompetence of designers has resulted to inaccurate design details or the inexperience of working on complex projects and risk prone projects. In addition, Oladapo (2007) identified that, variations are very profound in construction projects and its effect is inevitable on project objectives such as time and cost. To provide a simple understanding of variations, Baxendale and Schofield (1986) said the addition or subtractions made to the scope of the project amount to variation. Inadequate and faulty Plants and equipment have been suggested to be an influential problem in construction firms, although local contractors mostly use labours for their works (Berko, 2007). Moreover, materials shortage, defective materials unavailability of the required skills and the abysmal performance of labour as well as the lack of technical expertise to operate plant and equipment have also been identified as risk most local contractors are experiencing internally as well as stealing of materials by workers (Berko, 2007; Agyakwa-Baah, 2009). The researcher used descriptive Survey design. It involves the collection of information from a sample of individuals and organisations through their responses to questions and observation. When we want to describe individuals, groups, activities, events, or situations, descriptive research is appropriate.

Population
The population for the study was the contractors (D1K1), in the Construction Industry in the Central Region of Ghana who were undertaking on-going project.

Sampling Techniques and Sample Size
Purposive sampling was used. The researcher main target of the population was experience contractors who have been in the industry for not less than 3 years and who are executing ongoing projects in the central region of Ghana.

Questionnaires
The researcher designed and developed questionnaires for contractors as the main respondents.
Among the issues dwelled on involved: 1. The organization profile (contractor): This information dealt with the demographics with respect to the firm's financial class, years of experience in the construction, professional background of respondents, kind of projects they undertake, the duration and the cost. 2. Identified risk factors and their severity that affect construction projects: The second section dealt with the awareness of risk in general and risk that affect particular project.   (4) contractors with ten or less executed projects.  (15) that made up 57.7% of the total have practiced or executed projects for more than ten years. 23.1% of the construction organisation representing six respondents have between 6 to 10 years' experience in construction. Few of the organisation numbering five and at 19.2% have more than three years but less than five years. Significant, much of the information used for this study is obtained from very experienced Contractors in terms of projects executed and from respondents (senior managers) who are at the decision-making positions and thus will have better information regarding risk and its management in the firm and can be considered as expert judgments on behalf of the firm and thus credible for the purposes of the study carried out.

Results and Discussion of questionnaires from Contractors
Interestingly it came out that contractors who have been on the job for long time have also executed more projects. There is a correlation between number of years in the industry and the number of projects executed.   The researcher wanted to know the duration for the project undertaken by the contractors. Figure 4.11 show that 68 representing 36% of the 183-project studied was given a duration of 18 months to complete. Fiftyone (51) representing 27% were design to take 6 months to complete. Fifty representing 26% and the least 21 representing 12% were design to take 12 and 24 months to complete respectively. This shows that most of the projects taken by contractors are short-and medium-term project that takes less than 15 months to complete. This section of the questionnaire includes 10 main risks listed for the contractors, asking them to rank their severity from low to high (1-3). Table 4.5 shows the level of severity for the construction project risks in central and Greater Accra regions of Ghana. As it is seen, the first four risks in terms of severity are the final project cost exceeding the project budget, late completion of project, shortage of resources and late payment.

Contractors' views on Risks that affect construction project.
Referring to the risk categorization presented earlier, it can be determined that all these three risks are subcategories of Economic and Financial category. This indicates the great significance of influences of economic and financial risks on the construction projects in central and greater Accra regions. This is also followed by political or government influence on construction projects. environmental and poor safety conditions ranked lowest.  figure 4. has been fallen in the "High severity" group, followed by the next three risks in the "medium" group, and the last two risks in the "low severity" group. The following conclusion can be drawn from the study;  Finance and economic risks as well as political and Government interferences are considered as severe risks that affects construction projects significantly.  . Contracts are awarded not based on accurate estimated.  Exchange rate fluctuation is a risk factor.  Most of the time background of contractors are not checked on their financial background before contract are awarded to them.  The design process is the most important phase in the construction process. Design products should be at the highest level of quality, because of that it should have more focus by clients.  Payments of work done are not paid early.  A thorough feasibility studies should be undertaken before any project is done.  Beneficiary communities are not consulted when taking some of the project.

Suggestion for Future Research
 Some suggestions are provided below for future research to focus on:  Investigation on risk management of private construction projects in Ghana  Comparison between private and public construction projects in Ghana and their risk management