'Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM Press)'
Abstract
Civil engineering is a professional discipline that deals with built environment which involves physical
construction of man-made structures such as roads, rails, bridges, drains, water supply, geotechnical
systems, and services. It also deals with soft skills such as maintenance, research and investigation,
conservation, and planning. In Malaysia, it is a prerogative that civil engineers administer civil
engineering contracts. The preliminaries are an integral part of the bill of quantities and difficult to
price due to their nature. However, the contractor is expected to price all items fully. The engineer
prepares the preliminaries but the risk and liabilities are ultimately transferred to the contractor
notwithstanding the reliability of the bill itself. As such, the reliability of preliminaries is of the utmost
concern. The research focused on the improvement of the reliability of the preliminaries. The aim is to
improve the effectiveness of present preliminaries in Civil Engineering conventional contracts. The
objectives are, (1) To investigate the existing cost of item consideration and strategic approaches, (2)
To improve the criteria of cost-related item components and expand their potential strategies. This
paper considered previous research findings and highlighted the issues and problems related to the
fallacy of the subject. Based on the preliminary survey (N=18), it was obvious that the issues
concerning the reliability of preliminaries do exist. The research proceeded with a mass survey
(N=270) of stratified data sampling involving Malaysian civil engineering contractors belonging to G7
CE21 class, as well as civil engineering consultants and developers. The survey used Likert scales,
which ranged from 1 for “Strongly Disagree” to 5 for “Strongly Agree”. The analysis predominantly
used SPSS statistics. The results conspicuously exposed the issues and the weaknesses of present
practices. The improvement in the criteria of the present practices’ is expected to increase the
reliability of preliminaries. As a way forward, the improved criteria provide better clarity, accuracy, and
transparency to engineers and contractors as well as other construction players in general. Reliable
preliminary items improve price accuracy for the betterment of the construction industry