Abstract:
This study explored the performance difference between Single-prime and Multi
prime contracting methods in terms of cost, quality, timeliness, and overall
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performance as they are used in road construction in Nairobi City County. The study
employed a comparative primary cross-sectional study with primary data collection
using a semi-structured Likert-scaled questionnaire to collect data from professionals
who have been involved in both contracting methods in roads construction in the
County over the past 10 years. The study employed purposive and snowball sampling
to select the professionals who were in active road construction projects in the county
and professionals who had been involved in roads construction in Nairobi City County
in the past ten years. The Study tool was tested for reliability and found to meet internal
consistency requirements. The analysis of construction costs revealed a statistically
significant difference between single prime and multi-prime (p = 0.006), suggesting
that single prime projects costed slightly higher. The analysis also indicated no
statistically significant difference in project timelines between the two contracting
methods (U = 704.000, z = -1.208, p = 0.227). However, the higher mean rank for
Multi-prime (45.79) compared to Single-prime (39.37) suggests longer time in Multi
prime projects. A statistically significant difference was observed in the quality of
project output between Single-prime and Multi-prime contracting methods (p = 0.002).
The significantly higher mean rank for Single-prime (38.91) compared to Multi prime
(46.46) (p=0002) indicates that Multi-prime contracting is associated with higher
quality project outputs. The difference in overall contract performance between the
two methods was statistically significant (p = 0.019). Notably, despite the seemingly
lower quality output, Multi-prime contracting showed a slightly higher mean rank
(45.87) compared to Single-prime (39.32) in overall performance. The result suggests
that single-prime contracting may actually be associated with marginally higher costs,
lower quality, but shorter completion time, possibly due to the prime contractor's
markup on subcontractor work. This study concludes that Multi-primes preforms
better than Single-prime contracting methods in terms of cost and overall performance
in large and complex road construction projects in Nairobi City County-Kenya Nairobi
City County where a lot more technical expertise may be required.
