Time overruns in the construction projects in Iraq: Case study on investigating and analyzing the root causes

In the construction industry, time overrun in construction projects has become a global phenomenon. In Iraq, this problem is very considerable where a high percentage of projects are completed behind schedule, causing a large negative impact on society on the one side and the economic impact on the other side of the country. This study aims to define the major factors that cause construction project’s time overrun by studying delay causes of projects and performing a number of interviews with a group of specialists in project construction. Next, a questionnaire is used to obtain responses from 115 participants in the city of Najaf. In addition, agreement analysis is performed to ensure that the arranged rankings by all involved respondents’ categories are not ordered by coincidence, and the Chi-squared test is put to use as well to mark the agreement or disagreement context among the respondent category rankings. The target respondents of the study included: clients, consultants, project managers, contractors, and engineers who have an experience in project management and construction. The findings of the study revealed that the top five most essential factors causing delay in public construction projects are global and local economic crises, bureaucracy and corruption, public holidays, delay in getting governmental permits, and issuing numerous change orders by owners. Moreover, eight components are extracted from the 45 questionnaire items put to use for factor analysis. Among the extracted factors are the inaccuracy of tendering process, technical performance management, and government interferences.