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Financial-related causes contributing to project delays

Article in Journal of Retail &#38 Leisure Property · August 2009

DOI: 10.1057/rlp.2009.11

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 Original Article

Financial-related causes
contributing to project delays
Received (in revised form): 19th May 2009

Hamzah Abdul-Rahman
is currently the dean at the Faculty of Built Environment at the University of Malaya in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia. He holds a PhD degree from the University of Manchester Institute of Science
and Technology (UMIST, UK), MSc from University of Florida and BSc (Hons) from Central
Missouri State University. His research interests are in Quality and Project Management in
Construction. Besides being a fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Dr Hamzah
has authored many publications in international journals and conferences. He continuously
improves the contents of the programme to benefit participants who come from a variety of
construction-related organisations and background.

Roshana Takim
is a senior lecturer who has been in service for 26 years at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
Shah Alam, and currently the head of Programme for Master of Science in Integrated Construction
Project Management at Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, UiTM. She has previously
worked as Development Officer, managing the entire physical development of UiTM for the past
13 years. She formerly graduated from Heriot-Watt University in 1987 with BSc (Hons) Building.
In 1996, she received her MSc Construction Project Management from Loughborough University,
UK and her PhD from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2005. She has presented more than 30
conference papers both locally and internationally, including United Kingdom, Dubai, China,
Hong Kong and Thailand. In 2005 she won the Best Paper Award at Association of Researcher
(ARCOM), UK. Her present research interests include project performance, technology transfer,
knowledge management and public–private partnerships.

Wong Sze Min

was a student at the University of Malaya and is currently working in a quantity surveying firm
in Malaysia.

ABSTRACT Delay in construction projects is a common phenomenon

and a costly problem. This paper addresses the issues of financial-
related delays in construction projects. It identifies the root causes and
scrutinises the suitable mitigation actions of financial-related project
delays. Four main factors were identified in the literature, namely late
payment, poor cash flow management, insufficient financial resources
and financial market instability. Primary data were collected by way of
a preliminary interview, questionnaire survey and in-depth structured
interviews. A total of 110 responses were obtained from a combination
of clients, contractors, consultants and bankers. The result revealed
that poor cash flow management is the most significant factor that
leads to a project’s delay followed by late payment, insufficient
financial resources and financial market instability. Contractors’
instable financial background, client’s poor financial and business
Correspondence: management, difficulties in obtaining loan from financiers and
Hamzah Abdul-Rahman
inflation were identified as the most significant underlying causes.
Faculty of Built Environment,
University of Malaya, The study findings indicate that clients play the most important role
Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia in reducing the impact of financial problems towards the extent of

© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238
www.palgrave-journals.com/rlp/
 Abdul-Rahman et al

project’s delay. Several suitable mitigation actions were suggested by

the respondents. The study highlights the importance of having more
intensive research that give emphasis on clients achieving a well-
managed cash flow in order to obtain a prompt payment practice in the
construction industry.
Journal of Retail and Leisure Property (2009) 8, 225–238.
doi:10.1057/rlp.2009.11

Keywords: delays; financial-related problems;

Malaysian construction industry

INTRODUCTION
The construction industry is one of the important industries that
contribute to Malaysia’s economic growth. The total contribution by the
construction industry to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) is
significant, accounting for nearly 3.3 per cent of GDP in the year 2005
with about 600 000 workers (MALBEX, 2005). This contribution
expanded to 4.6 per cent in year 2007, which is the highest growth since
1999 (National product and expenditure accounts – fourth quarter, 2007,
2008). The construction industry poses a great challenge as it is essential
in generating wealth, improving the quality of life of the citizen through
the provision of social and economic infrastructures and it links the whole
spectrum of the economy with a multiplier effect that enables other
industries to prosper alongside (Construction Industry Working Group on
Payment, 2007). This industry can be regarded as one of the most risky,
dynamic and challenging business, which suffered a temporary crisis
between 1997 and 2000 during the ASEAN economy crisis, but had
improved gradually since then. However, delays still occur in
construction projects as the industry is famed for poor risk management,
with many projects failing to meet deadlines and cost targets.
Delay is one of the most common, costly, complex and risky problems
encountered in a construction project (Alaghbari et al, 2007). According
to Shen et al (2001), the majority of the building projects usually cannot
be accomplished within the stipulated contract period. Delays occur in
most construction project and the magnitude of these delays varies
considerably from project to project, and the problem of delays in project
is a worldwide phenomenon. In Australia, only one-eighth of building
contracts were accomplished within the schedule completion dates and
the average time overrun exceeded 40 per cent (Bromilow, 1974). Hence,
the construction industry in Malaysia, a fast developing country in South-
East Asia, is not an exception. In 2005, approximately 17.3 per cent of the
417 government contract projects in Malaysia were considered sick with
more than three months delay or abandoned.

DELAYS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Delay means a time overrun either beyond the contract date or beyond the
date that the parties have agreed upon for the delivery of a project
(Lo et al, 2006). Delay is common in every construction project and its
extent varies considerably from project to project. Some projects are only

226 © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238
 Financial-related causes contributing to project delays

a few days behind schedule; some are delayed by over a year (Ahmed
et al, 2003). In construction, delay could be defined as time overruns
either beyond the completion date stipulated in contract or beyond the
agreed date for delivery of a project between the parties (Assaf and
Al-Hejji, 2006). Aibinu and Jagboro (2002) describe delay as a
circumstance when the contractor and the project owner jointly or
differently contribute to the non-completion of the project within the
original or the stipulated or agreed contract period. Bramble and
Callahan (1987) define delay as the time during which some part of
the construction project has been extended or not performed because
of an unanticipated circumstance. Hence, delay is a situation in which
the work is being slowed down without stopping it entirely
(Bartholomew, 1998).
Delays in construction projects lead to serious consequences that may
retard the development of the construction industry and influence the
overall economical condition of a country (Arditi et al, 1985). According
to Shen (1997), delay in the completion of construction projects could be
the greatest cause for extra cost and loss in financial return or other
benefits from project. Thus, delay is costly for both owner and contractor.
To the owner, a delay means loss of potential revenue, whereas to the
contractor, a delay means increased costs in overhead.
Numerous studies (Mansfield et al, 1994; Chan and Kumaraswamy,
1998; Al-Khalil and Al-Ghafly, 1999; Assaf and Al-Hejji, 2006) were
conducted to identify the common causes of delays in local construction
projects with an intention to lessen the extent of delays and its impact.
Most of the survey results (Al-Khalil and Al-Ghafly, 1999; Frimpong
and Oluwoye, 2003) show that financial problem is one of the main
causes of delays. Although the problem of delays looms large in the
local construction industry, no attempt has been made to identify the
root causes of financial-related problems.

CAUSES OF FINANCIAL-RELATED DELAYS

Sambasivan and Soon (2007) have developed 28 well-recognised
construction delay factors in construction and categorised them into
eight major groups. These are client-related factors, contractor-related
factors, consultant-related factors, material-related factors, labour- and
equipment-related factors, financial-related factors, contract-related factor
and external factors. Among others, a financial-related factor is one of the
most critical factors that cause delays in construction projects (Alaghbari
et al, 2007). The statement is supported by Sweis et al (2007) stating that
in Jordan, financial difficulties faced by many contractors cause delay in
construction projects. This is because of the many changes that are made
by project clients during construction. As a result, it increases the
construction cost in which contractors have to procure the material and
equipment beyond their normal boundaries. In addition, delay in paying
contractors will subsequently jeopardise contractor’s cash flow. Delay in
payment resulted in the slow progress on site, as many sub-contractors
and suppliers are subjected to financial difficulties; hence, no material is
delivered to the site.

© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238 227
 Abdul-Rahman et al

A similar trend can be seen in the Malaysian construction industry.

According to Ahmed et al (2003) and Wa’el Alaghbari (2005), the
possible financial-related factors that lead to delays in Malaysian
construction projects are financial problems of clients such as delayed
payments, financial difficulties and economic problems; financial and
cash flow problems of contractors; and external factor of poor economic
conditions such as currency and inflation rate. In addition, difficulties in
obtaining loans (Arditi et al, 1985) and short of funding are adverse
financial-related factors that were identified in previous works.
Based on the 19 possible causes for financial-related project delay,
shown in Table 1, the authors decide to group these causes under four
different categories, namely late payment, poor cash flow management,
insufficient financial resources and financial market instability. All the
sub-problems are closely related to each other and will cause a significant
impact on projects’ delays. A description of each of the financial-related
causes for delay follows.

Late payment
Late payment is defined as failure of a paymaster to pay within the period
of honouring of certificates as provided in the contract (Harris and
McCaffer, 2003). The parties involved in the process of payment claim
such as client, contractor, superintending officer, architect, quantity
surveyor, banker and other construction players may cause a payment to
be delayed. A delayed payment by a party who is involved in the process
of payment claim may have an influence on the supply chain of payment
in whole. According to the Construction Industry Working Group on
Payment (2007), problems in payment at the higher end of the hierarchy
will lead to a serious knock-on cash flow problem down the chain of
contracts. The identified underlying causes of late payment include

Table 1: A list of 19 possible causes of financial-related problems

Category Sub-categories

Late payment • Client’s poor financial and business management

• Withhold of payment by client
• Contractor’s invalid claim
• Delay in valuation and certification of interim payment by consultant
• Inaccuracy of valuation for work done
• Insufficient documentation and information for valuation
• Involvement of too many parties in the process of honouring certificates
• Heavy work load of consultant to do evaluation for variation order

Poor cash flow management • Contractor handles too many projects at the same time
• Contractor’s unstable financial background
• Unqualified contractor underbidding the project cost
• Lack of regularly cash flow forecasting
• Poor credit arrangement with creditors and debtors
• Capital lock-up

Insufficient financial resources • Difficulties in getting loan from financiers

• Allocation of government budget not in place

Financial market instability • Increment of interest rate in repayment of loan

• Inflation (material prices, labour wages, transportation costs)
• Increment of foreign exchange rate (imported materials and plants)

228 © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238
 Financial-related causes contributing to project delays

(1) client’s poor financial and business management, (2) withholding of

payment by client, (3) contractor’s invalid claim, (4) delay in valuation
and certification of interim payment by consultant, (5) inaccuracy of
valuation for work done, (6) insufficient documentation and information
for valuation, (7) involvement of too many parties in the process of
honouring certificates, (8) heavy work loads of consultant to carry out
evaluation for work done and (9) contractor’s misinterpretation of client’s
requirement of variation order.

Poor cash flow management

Cash flow management is defined as a process of monitoring, analysing
and adjusting projects’ cash flow (Ward, nd). According to Ward (nd),
the most important aspect of cash flow management is to avoid extended
cash shortages that are caused by having too great a gap between cash
inflows and outflows. As in the case of Dawnays Ltd v FG Minter Ltd
(1971), Lord Denning famously said that cash flow is the lifeblood of the
construction industry, and (Construction Industry Working Group on
Payment, 2007) ease of cash flow is an essential element in delivering a
successful project. Thus, a well-managed cash flow is important to enable
the delivery of a successful project by performing a cash flow analysis on
a regular basis to identify cash flow problems (Ward, nd). In analysing
the cash flow of a project, cash flow forecasting is an essential method to
head off cash flow problems. It is then important to develop and employ
strategies that will maintain an adequate cash flow for the project.
Therefore, a well-managed cash flow will improve the project’s cash flow
and subsequently improve the timely performance of a project.
Conversely, a poorly managed cash flow represents the opposite. The
underlying causes to poor cash flow management can be categorised as
(1) contractor handles too many projects at the same time, (2) contractor’s
instable financial background, (3) unqualified contractor underbidding the
project cost, (4) lack of regular cash flow forecasting, (5) poor credit
arrangement with creditors and debtors and (6) capital lock-up.

Insufficient financial resources

According to Kaming et al (1997), one of the most important factors
causing delays in high-rise projects in Indonesia is the shortage of
resources. In addition, Noulmanee et al (1999) investigated the causes of
delays in highway construction in Thailand and concluded that one of the
main causes of delays is the insufficient resources of an organisation.
A survey by Ubaid (1991) concluded that the contractor’s resources are
the major measures on the contractors’ performance that cause delays.
The resources include financial resources, human resources, material
resources and equipment resources. However, only the financial resources
are focused in the research, as Abdul-Rahman et al (2006) addressed that
lack of funds may affect the project’s cash flow and lead to delay in site
possession, which consequently causes delays in the project as whole.
The factors that would cause insufficient financial resources are
(1) difficulties in obtaining loan from financiers and (2) allocation of
government budget not in place.

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 Abdul-Rahman et al

Financial market instability

According to Ahmed et al (2003) and Wa’el Alaghbari (2005), the external
factor of poor economic conditions such as currency and inflation rate
would significantly give impact to project’s cash flow, and hence affect
the timely performance of the project. The underlying causes to financial
market instability, which will then lead to cash flow problems in construction
project include (1) increment of interest rate in repayment of loan,
(2) inflation of material prices, labour wages and transportation costs and
(3) increment of foreign exchange rate for imported materials and plants.

RELATIONSHIP OF MAIN FINANCIAL-RELATED

FACTORS TO DELAYS
Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between dependent and independent
variables. It shows that the financial-related problems that cause delays
in construction project are mainly for four main reasons. They are late
payment, poor cash flow management, insufficient financial resources
and financial market instability.
Figure 2 shows the propositions with the direct relationship between
main problem and sub-problems. The propositions for each of the
sub-problems can be summarised as follows:
(i) The greater the delay in payment due to a contractor, the greater
the cash flow problems, the greater the extent of delays.
(ii) The poorer the cash flow management, the greater the cash flow
problems, the greater the extent of delays.
(iii) The greater the shortage of financial resources, the greater the
cash flow problems, the greater the extent of delays.
(iv) The greater the instability of financial market, the greater the cash
flow problems, the greater the extent of delays.

Figure 3 shows the propositions with the direct relationship between main
problem and sub-problems. For instance, poor cash flow management by
a client of a construction project will cause a late payment to contractor.
Delay in payment for work done from the client will affect the cash flow
of the contractor.

Depend Variable Independent Variables

Late payment

Poor cash flow

management

Delays in construction Insufficient financial

industry resources

Financial market
instability

Figure 1: Relationship between dependent and independent variables.

230 © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238
 Financial-related causes contributing to project delays

1. Delay in payment
T 2. Poor in cash flow management
H 3. Lack of financial resources
E 4. Instability of financial market
G
R
E
A
T The greater the cash flow problem
E
R

The greater the extent of delays in construction

Figure 2: Relationship between main problem and sub-problems.

Late Payment

Poor Cash Flow Cash Flow Insufficient

Management and Financial Resources
Extent of Delays

Financial Market
Instability

Figure 3: Inter-relationship between independent variables.

In addition, the instability of financial market would imply extra

financial commitments that are beyond the capacity of the contractor that
he or she is not prepared for such extra costs. As a result, the contractor
would need to seek for additional financial resources in terms of loans
from financial institutions such as banks. In some occasion, the loans are
difficult to obtain from financial institutions as they have a strictly
regulated checklist of borrowers’ financial situation. owing to failure or
delay in obtaining loans, shortage of financial resources at the time will
lead to cash flow shortfalls that consequently cause delays in project. In
essence, each independent variable is inter-related with each other. The
relationship between independent variable forms a continual cycle.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The aim of the research is to reduce the extent of delays’ impact caused
by financial problems in Malaysian construction. The objectives of the
research are as follows:

(i) To identify the major root causes of financial-related problems

that would lead to delays in Malaysian construction projects.
(ii) To analyse the differences in the attitudes and perceptions of the
four major industry parties – the clients, contractors, consultants
and bankers – towards the causes of financial-related problems
and their responsibilities in mitigating the problems.

© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238 231
 Abdul-Rahman et al

(iii) To investigate the opinions of the parties upon the actions that
they undertake to manage the financial problems and study the
suitable prevention steps in reducing the problems.

RESEARCH METHOD
The research adopted four principal sources to achieve the objectives,
namely preliminary interviews, questionnaire survey and in-depth
structured interviews. The literature review was conducted to gather the
related information in order to provide full understanding and knowledge
on the variables and related issues regarding the delays and financial-
related problems in the construction industry. An exploratory preliminary
interview was then carried out with construction professionals to obtain
preliminary information regarding the causes of financial-related
problems in construction industry towards identifying the four sub-
problems, as discussed previously. The information gathered from the
literature review and preliminary interviews were used to design the
questionnaires and interviews.
A questionnaire survey was carried out to identify the major root
causes of financial-related problems for the second stage of data
collection. This research focused on four main groups of participant in
building construction projects. These groups comprise clients,
contractors, consultants (building architects, civil engineers and quantity
surveyors) and bankers. The questionnaires were distributed to a random
sample of 150 clients, 250 contractors and 150 consultants located in the
Klang Valley (Kuala Lumpur and Selangor States) and eight bankers
located in Perak. A one-month period was allowed for the participants to
complete and return the survey forms.
After the data were quantified from the questionnaire survey, eight
respondents were short-listed to be interviewed in order to understand a
particular phenomenon from the point of view of the parties based on the
feedback and comments given in the questionnaire forms. This approach
was adopted as the research involved probing questions whereby
respondents were required to provide in-depth answers in order that
particularly interesting aspects of the responses could be delved into.
The in-depth structured interviews covered the four main parties
involved in construction project, which included two respondents form
each group.

SURVEY RESULT ANALYSIS

Of the 558 questionnaires that had been sent out to the targeted groups,
110 questionnaires were returned, which yields an overall response rate
of 19.71 per cent: 16 were from clients, 50 from contractors, 40 from
consultants and four from bankers. Table 2 shows the response rate of
each professional group. The highest responses at 45 per cent were given
by the contractor, followed by consultant (36 per cent), client
(15 per cent) and banker (4 per cent).
A total of eight interviews were conducted with two respondents
from each professional group. Table 3 illustrates the details of
interviewees for each group. Most of the questions asked during the
interview concentrated on the root causes that had been identified from

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 Financial-related causes contributing to project delays

Table 2: Respondent to questionnaire survey

Professional group Sent Received

No. % No. %

Client 150 27 16 15
Contractor 250 45 50 45
Consultant 150 27 40 36
Banker 8 1 4 4

Total 558 100 110 100

Table 3: Details of the interviewees for in-depth structured interviews

Group Position held by interviewees Experience of interviewees

Client A • Project manager 10 years

Client B • Project manager 26 years
Contractor A • Project manager 23 years
Contractor B • Engineer 20 years
Consultant A • Quantity surveyor 10 years
Consultant B • Quantity surveyor 8 years
Bankers A • Senior sales and marketing executive 6 years
Bankers B • Branch manager 14 years

each group in the questionnaire survey, the understanding of their

occurrence and the suitable mitigation actions that have been adopted
and suggested by the interviewees.

Late payment
Table 4 shows that a contractor’s invalid claim was agreed upon by
clients as most significant underlying cause to late payment with 59
scores; withholding of payment by client by contractors with 202 scores;
client’s poor financial and business management by consultants with 172
scores; withhold of payment by client and client’s poor financial and
business management by bankers with 15 scores, respectively. Overall,
the results indicated that client’s poor financial and business management
was most significant in contributing to late payment, which would lead to
project’s delays.

Poor cash flow management

Table 5 delineates that contractor’s instable financial background was
agreed upon by clients, consultants and bankers as the most significant
underlying cause to poor cash flow management with scores of 62, 167
and 17, respectively; and unqualified contractor underbidding the project
cost by contractors with a score of 200. Generally, a contractor’s instable
financial background was suggested from the results as the most
significant factor that underlies poor cash flow management that would
consequently lead to delays in project.

Insufficient financial resources

The results from Table 6 shows that contractors, consultants and bankers
similarly agreed on the fact that difficulties in obtaining loan from financiers

© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238 233
 Abdul-Rahman et al

Table 4: Underlying causes of late payment

Underlying causes of late payment Score

Client Contractor Consultant Banker Total

(a) Client’s poor financial and business 58 197 172 15 442

management
(b) Withhold of payment by client 58 202 152 15 427
(c) Contractor’s invalid claim 59 153 135 12 359
(d) Delay in valuation and certification of 55 185 127 10 377
interim payment by consultant
(e) Inaccuracy of valuation for work done 56 168 113 10 347
(f) Insufficient documentation and 54 170 139 12 375
information for valuation
(g) Involvement of too many parties in the 48 191 140 14 393
process of honouring certificates
(h) Heavy work load of consultant to do 41 150 119 10 320
evaluation for work done
(i) Contractor’s misinterpretation of client’s 43 154 137 10 344
requirement of variation order

Table 5: Underlying causes to poor cash flow management

Underlying causes to poor cash flow management Score

Client Contractor Consultant Banker Total

(a) Contractor handles too many projects 58 174 153 11 396

at the same time
(b) Contractor’s unstable financial background 62 195 167 17 441
(c) Unqualified contractor underbidding the 61 200 165 10 436
project cost
(d) Lack of regularly cash flow forecasting 58 197 155 15 425
(e) Poor credit arrangement with creditors 57 190 154 13 414
and debtors
(f) Capital lock-up 56 188 151 16 411

Table 6: Underlying causes to insufficient financial resources

Underlying causes to insufficient financial resources Score

Client Contractor Consultant Banker Total

(a) Difficulties in getting loan from financiers 52 180 148 14 394

(b) Allocation of government budget not in place 53 176 144 13 386

was the most significant factor that causes insufficient financial resources in
construction industry with scores of 180, 148 and 14, respectively, whereas
clients agreed on the fact that allocation of government budget not in place
was a significant factor responsible for insufficient financial resources with
a score of 53. However, the overall results indicated that ‘difficulties in
obtaining loan from financiers’ was the most significant factor that causes
insufficient financial resources with a score of 394.

Financial market instability

Table 7 shows that four of the professional groups agreed on the fact that
inflation of material prices, labour wages and transportation costs would
significantly lead to cash flow problems, which consequently cause
delays with scores of 61, 211, 164 and 18, respectively. In general, this

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 Financial-related causes contributing to project delays

Table 7: Underlying causes of financial market instability

Underlying causes of financial market instability Score

Client Contractor Consultant Banker Total

(a) Increment of interest rate in repayment of loan 52 178 139 13 382

(b) Inflation (material prices, labour wages, transportation costs) 61 211 164 18 454
(c) Increment of foreign exchange rate (imported materials and 56 182 142 15 395
plants)

underlying factor was agreed upon as the most significant factor to

financial market instability with a total score of 454.

MAJOR FINANCIAL-RELATED CAUSES OF DELAYS

Table 8 identifies the most significant financial-related causes leading to
delays in construction project. The results show that poor cash flow
management was most significant in contributing to delay (score = 464),
followed by insufficient financial resources (score = 451), late payment
(score = 450) and financial market instability (score = 418).
Table 9 shows that poor cash flow management is the cause that
frequently occurs in construction industry (score = 228), followed by late
payment (score = 231), insufficient financial resources (score = 232) and
financial market instability (score = 349).
Table 10 indicates that poor cash flow management was agreed upon
by four professional groups as the root cause of delays, whereas late
payment by three professional groups except bankers.
It can be concluded that poor cash flow management was the most
significant factor in contributing to delays in construction project in which
contractor’s instable financial background (score = 441), unqualified contractor
underbidding the project cost (score = 436) and lack of regularly cash flow
forecasting (score = 425) came under the category. The next significant
factor was late payment, under which client’s poor financial and business
management (score = 442) and withhold of payment by client (score = 427) fell
under. Trailing after them was insufficient financial resources, under which
difficulties in obtaining loan from financiers (score = 394) came under, and
lastly followed by financial market instability under which inflation of material
prices, labour wages and transportation costs (score = 454) fell under.

RESPONSIBILITY TO LESSEN DELAYS

Table 11 reveals that clients should bear the greatest responsibility and
play the most important role in lessening the impact of financial
problems. Approximately 60 per cent of respondents chose clients. A
further comment was provided by one respondent that government plays
an important role as well.

SUGGESTED MITIGATION ACTIONS

The findings from the interviews can be classified into three main
categories as follows:
(i) Payment: Client should practice prompt payment to main
contractor.

© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238 235
 Abdul-Rahman et al

Table 8: Major financial-related causes of delays

Financial-related problems Score

Client Contractor Consultant Banker Total

Late payment 58 212 165 15 450

Poor cash flow management 60 211 174 19 464
Insufficient financial resources 64 198 172 17 451
Financial market instability 54 188 161 15 418

Table 9: Financial-related causes that frequently occur

Financial-related problems Score

(Rank 1=Most frequent, 4=Least frequent)

Client Contractor Consultant Banker Total

Late payment 36 91 91 10 231

Poor cash flow management 35 98 87 8 228
Insufficient financial resources 33 129 90 10 232
Financial market instability 58 153 126 12 349

Table 10: Major financial-related causes of Table 11: Responsibility to lessen delays
delays from interviews
Professionals Score
Respondents Most significant sub-problem(s)
Clients 66
Clients Late payment Contractors 30
Poor cash flow management Consultants 8
Bankers 5
Contractors Late payment Government 1
Poor cash flow management

Consultants Late payment

Poor cash flow management

Bankers Poor cash flow management

(ii) Cash flow management: Client should:

— Adopt ‘financial assignment’ to deal with suppliers in order to
supply materials to the contractor and obtain direct payment from
client.
— Structure the market by dividing the housing development into
section.
— Do not over develop.
— Be educated on the importance of ‘cash flow management’ and the
‘financial and business management’ in order to have a well cash
flow management.
Contractor should:
— Adopt quota system, so that they do not engage with too many
projects.
— Be careful in accessing risk in terms of material, transportation,
labour and maintenance profit.
— Be smart in accepting the contract and choose a good paymaster.
— Carry out a lot of cost control internally.
— Apply payment bond with bank and client.

236 © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238
 Financial-related causes contributing to project delays

— Be eligible in making payment terms between client and sub-

contractor.
— Be educated on the importance of ‘cash flow management’ and
the ‘financial and business management’ in order to have a well
cash flow management.
(iii) Financial resources: Banks should:
— Provide end-financing to most of the projects in order to solve
most of the client’s cash flow problem.
— Speed up the process of releasing the loan to the clients after all
the conditions had been met.
(iv) Legislation: Legislation should be amended to give a clear message
to constructors and clients as to clarify the payment matters and
refund procedures. These problems can be mitigated by execution
of law in terms and conditions through setting a provision to deal
with them. Stringent Act upon the bad payment culture should be
executed and the time of money flow between all parties legally
should be considered.

CONCLUSIONS
Delay is a serious issue in construction industry as it impacts the time and
cost of projects. Delay in construction projects would cause for extra cost
and loss in financial return or other benefits from project. Thus, delay is
costly for both owner and contractor. The extent of delays should be
reduced by identifying the root causes of financial-related problems and
find out the solutions that are able to reduce the extent of delays in
construction project.
The survey findings indicated that the root causes of financial-related
delays are because of poor cash flow management followed by late
payment, insufficient financial resources and financial market instability.
Contractor’s instable financial background, client’s poor financial and
business management, difficulties in obtaining loan from financiers and
inflation were identified as the most significant underlying causes to each
of four main factors mentioned above. All parties involved in the
construction project agreed on the fact that clients should bear the
greatest responsibility and play the most important role in lessening the
impact of financial problems and delays.
Several mitigation actions have been suggested by respondents in
resolving the problem such as prompt payment by client, practicing
‘financial assignment’ among client, contractor and supplier, divide the
housing development into section, be smart in choosing paymaster, be
careful in accessing risk, be eligible in making payment term, carry out
cost control internally, be educated on the importance of ‘cash flow
management’ and the ‘financial and business management’ in order to
have a well cash flow management, speed up the process of releasing the
loan, amend the term and conditions of contract and so forth.
The findings of the research highlights the importance of having more
intensive research that gives emphasis on clients achieving a well-
managed cash flow in order to obtain a prompt payment practice in
construction industry.

© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238 237
 Abdul-Rahman et al

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238 © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1479–1110 Journal of Retail & Leisure Property Vol. 8, 3, 225–238

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