Impact of Health and Safety Prevention Cost on Construction Cost in Kwara State.

Abstract

Construction activities involve risky and unhealthy operations which give rise to mortality and morbidity rate and adversely affect the overall construction cost. However, Stakeholders (especially contractors) within the construction industry believe that investment in health and safety (H&S) programme increases overall construction cost and therefore tend to neglect relevant accident prevention activities on construction site. There is limited empirical evidence to back this claim. Therefore, this study assessed the impact of H&S prevention cost on construction cost in Kwara State using cost data of previously completed projects. Data collection were through structured questionnaires. Research population constituted 40 professionals who participated in the preparation of invitation to tender and award of contract; and cost data from the archive of Kwara State Ministry of Works and Housing on sixty (60) construction projects awarded and completed between 2006 and 2016.Analyses of data were done using Relative Importance Index (RII) and Pearson Correlation. The study identified 35 elements of H&S programme, which form the basis for H&S prevention cost forecast, under 4 major components out of which safety manager on site (RII = 0.78), onsite safety inspection (RII=0.71), safety helmet (RII=0.74) and tool-box talk (RII=0.44) were the most important under each component. Health and safety prevention cost were observed to fall between the range of 1-10% of the contract sum. It was discovered that there exists a strong positive and significant relationship between H&S prevention cost and construction cost. Thus, H&S prevention cost and construction cost increases together. It was, therefore, recommended that adequate cost control measures should be adopted to checkmate H&S expenditure during construction process instead of total avoidance H&S programme.