Quantity surveyors and skills required for procurement management

ABSTRACTIn Nigeria, there has been clamour for recognition of quantity surveyors as professionals trained and qualified to act and function as procurement officers. Using basic skills required of procurement officers, this study examined the ability of quantity surveyors to function as procurement officers. Data were collected through questionnaires administered on quantity surveyors and procurement managers. The importance of identified skills was examined using Mean item score; Spearman's rank correlation was employed to test relationships while Mann–Whitney test was used to examine the difference in opinions of respondents. The most important skills required for procurement officers are technical and tactical skills. Although, the level of exhibition of these skills by quantity surveyors is a little above average, their performance is low in comparison with the level of importance of the skills. The identified skills are not significantly exhibited by quantity surveyors and their areas of strength are inversely proportional to the importance of the skills. However, for quantity surveyors to function as procurement managers, identified basic skills are major requirements. It is therefore essential for these skills to be incorporated into various Continuous Programme Development of the quantity surveyors' regulatory bodies to improve their procurement skills.