A Survey of the Prevalent Forms of Corruption in the Construction Industry in Botswana

14 May A Survey of the Prevalent Forms of Corruption in the Construction Industry in Botswana

By Oscar Legae, Aderemi Y. Adeyemi

March 2017

Abstract
The Construction industry is contributing immensely towards social and economic developments around the world. However the industry is susceptible to corrupt practices because it involves substantial capital investments. Every phase of the construction process: planning and design, pre-qualification, tendering, project execution, operation and maintenance is attractive to corruption. The effects of corruption are quite substantial in terms of quality, time and cost of a project. The objective of this study was to identify the most prevalent form of corruption in the Construction industry in Botswana. The study was quantitative and conducted through literature review on the topics related to corruption in the Construction industry followed by questionnaire survey. A total of 81 questionnaires were distributed among the relevant employees of the Directorate of Building and Engineering Services (DBES), Southern District Council (SDC) and contracting organizations. Sixty properly filled questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 74.07%. Cronbach’s Alpha equals 0.939 for the entire questionnaire which indicates an excellent reliability of the entire questionnaire. Rank-order Analysis was performed to examine the professionals’ perceptions of the most prevalent form of corruption in Botswana’s construction industry The results indicate that bribery in form of cash inducement, gifts, favors, and kickbacks rank highest (RII= 0.65) and constitute the most prevalent form of corruption in Botswana’s construction industry.