Contractors' Perceptions of Construction Risks—A Case Study of Power Station Projects in Egypt

摘要

The process of risk management is generally divided into three phases: risk identification, risk analysis, and risk response. Out of these three phases, the concept of risk identification appears to be the most known and practiced. This research focused on investigating how risks were perceived and managed by a large sample of Egyptian and international contractors who participated in the execution of two major power plant projects in Egypt. The results showed a marked lack of consistency in the contractors' risk identification effort. Furthermore, contractors possessing past experience in Egypt were far better able to identify the relevant risks. On the other hand, local Egyptian contractors with vast experience in Egypt, but limited project management experience, were shown to lack the necessary expertise to properly identify risks and to take the appropriate exceptions. The results showed a significant difference among the number of exceptions taken when Egyptian contractors were bidding independently, compared to those when they were part of a consortium with international contractors. Furthermore, the results demonstrated clearly that bidders do not include in their proposals their true lists of exceptions which represent genuine risks to them.