Assessment of risk management in projects by national enterprise corporation (NEC) a case study of Kiira motors vehicle plant, Jinja

Abstract

This study assessed risk management in the implementation of the Kiira Motors Vehicle Plant by NEC. The study was guided by four study objectives which included establishing the risk management practices used by NEC, determining the effectiveness of the risk management practices, the challenges affecting risk management and the strategies that can be put in place to improve risk management in construction projects implemented by NEC. The study adopted a cross sectional research design while adopting both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study targeted 215 respondents but 166 respondents were able to respond. A self-administered questionnaire and interview guide were used to collect data from the field and the findings were presented in form of frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation to make meaning of the study findings. The study findings revealed that NEC had adopted some risk management practices which included having Risk Management Committee which provided risk avoidance strategies to workers, a risk register with a ranking scale to determine the threat of the identified risk and risks were ranked according to their level of threat to the project and categorized according to the importance attached to the activity being carried out where priority was given to risks that posed high levels of threat to the project. It was also revealed that to some extent the risk management was effective in that it had improved confidence of workers due to improved safety of workers which promoted quality of work. However, time and cost overruns, theft of materials, were still experienced. A lot of challenges were observed to be affecting the implementation of risk management and these included workers lacking skills and experience in risk management, inadequate funds allocated to the risk management function, lack of awareness about risk management processes, slow decision making and weather changes. Different strategies were put forward to improve risk management and included the need for NEC to only employ qualified and experienced personnel who have the knowledge and skills in handling the risks, benchmarking to develop an advanced risk management framework with a risk monitoring system that identifies risks in time, need to come up with other sources of funds to help in facilitating the staff involved in risk management, effective and finance trainings for creating awareness about the benefits of risk management and the need to insure all the assets used on the project. The study recommended that NEC should have and adhere to stringent supplier selection conditions, terms and procedures which screen out the most risky related supplies, enhance the skills and training of staff particularly in risk analysis and requesting for enough financial resources to motivate and facilitate staff for an extensive follow up of all the operations.