The Effect of Cost Management in Construction Projects’ Planning in Sudan

Abstract

The construction industry in Sudan is an important sector due to its enormous contribution to the country’s economic development. This in terms of employment opportunities and attraction of Foreign Direct Investments which grossly contributes to the country’s GDP. However due to the geographical, political, social and financial situation of the country, many construction projects are prone to delay, cost overrun or unsatisfactory quality, these three functions form the core of Project Management, on the other hand, this is what planned by every manager and project engineer. The cost management function maintains its important focus at every stage throughout the life cycle of a project. In listing the reasons for the success of a project, the management of cost is the most important as all project aspects affect this function. The main aim of this Research is to find out and to understand the role of the cost management on delayed delivery of projects, the increase in project budgeting and non-matching specification on delivery and to develop approaches to avoid these problems. The methodology is by using a questionnaire forms based on the data and information collected through the theoretical review. The results obtained indicate that most of the construction projects in Sudan have no completed planning and costing system, at same time disputes are occurring in the construction projects in Sudan in a significant way, due to the lack of awareness in planning and costing system, and consequently database in cost system is completely ignored. The Awareness of cost management stages in construction projects in Sudan is very poor that’s why the main reason for not reaching project goals (profit, duration and quality), which are planned in advance. it is found that the cost management of any construction project has a direct effect on the implementation of the project planning, and they are linked and complementary to each other, and to ensure the increase in the success rate of The relationship between cost management and planning must be maintained by giving an extra attention to the development of integrated costing and planning system, and apply it in all projects no matter the size or the budget or the type of project, and this system should be monitoring periodically throughout all of the project stages until the project handover phase. We found in our survey the following: Most of the construction projects in Sudan have no completed planning and costing system. The main reason for not reaching project goals (profit, duration and quality), which are planned in advance, is not to implement an integrated cost management system. The primary cost is very important on the majority of construction projects in Sudan and is very reliable. Following the steps of cost management carefully leads to successful outputs.