An appraisal of building control and regulations practice in Nigeria: Project managers’ perspectives

Globally, construction industry is advantageously important. The sector provides the infrastructure and buildings that contemporary living depends on; it influences immensely on human health and safety, and the industry is socio-economically important because it is an important creator of employment and raises growth in other economic sectors (Pedro et al. 2009). Nigerian construction industry is characterized with problems that deteriorate the standard of construction, often centred on quality of materials and workmanship that can be controlled by the appropriate use of regulations (Ruya et al. 2017). According to Omenihu et al. (2016), another serious problem in the industry is that designers and constructors do not pay attention to the frequent change in the use of buildings after they must have been constructed in determining factor of safety. Examples are cases of illegal increase in building storeys without considering the original foundation design, conversion of residential buildings to church buildings, and so on. These practices should be put to stop by the relevant authorities for the safety of the citizenry. Ogundele et al. (2011) opined that safeguarding the built-up areas from human injurious should be man’s principal responsibility. According to Meijer and Visscher (2014), assurance should be given by the building regulations that newly constructed buildings are safe for building users, and in most nations, the demand for additional comfort, energy efficiency, accessibility and sustainability is also made. Building control and regulations agency is a progressive organization that values its people and service excellence that will ensure that existing and new buildings are safe, healthy, accessible and habitable for current and future generations (Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development 2016). Safety and protection of life have been lacking in the Nigerian construction industry (Ruya et al. 2017).

The importance of good buildings in the community has necessitated for the enhancement in the standard of building construction and can be achieved through harmonized and adequate involvement of all stakeholders in the building industry by the use of suitable regulations as the main guide for quality management (Ruya et al. 2017). Appropriate regulations demand an effective building code that will put off irregularities in the building industry. The major problem with the Nigerian codes is that most of the codes stipulated for building constructions are not backed by laws and are also outdated (Omenihu et al. 2016). According to Ruya et al. (2017), in practice, the problems are categorized into unsound regulations and unused regulations; unsound regulations arise as a result of not well-written regulations, whereas unused regulations arise when specifications are not followed or used, and the causes of unsound regulations are misuse or misreporting of standards, non-compliance with regulations, quasi specifications and conflicting drawings.

Development control, also known as building control (in Nigeria), is a laid down process by law, aimed at regulating the development of land and erection of new buildings. According to Ojo-Fajuru and Adebayo (2018), development control is the process of implementing approved standards and regulations to ensure the development compliance. It is perceived as a mechanism to maintain standards (Aluko 2011) and to achieve its objectives. Strict compliance with these statutory provisions is utmost important (Ojo-Fajuru and Adebayo 2018). Development control is the method and approach in which physical development is regulated, and the physical development embraces human’s activities in relation to building and what development control seeks to accomplish is to ensure the orderly arrangement and control of these activities in space (Datonjo et al. 2016). In the development control process, two instruments are often used, which include: (a) enforcement notice – served on breach of law (e.g. carrying out building works without permit and (b) stop work notice – the order could be issued either because of illegal development or because of such development contrary to the one permitted by the authorised department (Ogundele et al. 2011). Development control minimizes the negative effect associated with the physical development (Aluko 2011). Problems and constraints of development control, according to Ogundele et al. (2011), include ineffective development control practice, insufficient financing of the control department, the absence of public insight programmes on physical planning matters by the relevant authorities and insufficient monitoring of development to confirm compliance, particularly in events where permit is granted for development. Ogundele et al. (2011) further state that the execution of control activities varies among local authorities in terms of frequency and understanding. Aluko (2011) opined that development control is a highly sensitive exercise that must be carried out with firmness, precaution and deep sense of responsibility by the concerned authority. Building control systems are essential to governments’ objectives of developing and maintaining the quality of the built environment (Imrie 2004). According to De Decker (2013) where uniform system of building control exists, the following are of great importance: (a) the technical requirements should be clearly stated and (b) the procedures should be transparent, efficient and effective.

Building regulations have been defined by several researchers. Building regulations are legal instruments used to guarantee the provision of socially acceptable performance with respect to the building and the health and safety of its users’ environs (Inter-jurisdiction Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC) 2010; Pedro et al. 2009). According to Obabori et al. (2007), building regulations are in the form of laws and authorities given to the public officials by the government. According to Local Authority Building Control (LABC, 2017), building regulations establish legal requirements and standards for design and erection of buildings to safeguard the health and safety of building users. Building control system ensures that these standards are applied and enforced (Pedro et al. 2009). This is often achieved through regulatory controls on the construction, design and use of buildings, covering areas such as fire safety, structural stability, heating, ventilation, lighting, plumbing, accessibility, indoor air quality, affordability, sustainability and energy (Inter-jurisdiction Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC) 2010). The building regulations are expressed in terms of “functional standards”, and these standards are statements of functions that the proposed building must comply (Building Standards Division 2017).

Building regulatory system comprises procedural regulations and technical requirements that determine the building permit procedures and the degree and the strength of building control (Meijer and Visscher 2014); well-written procedures are an integral part of any industrial organization for managing risks, constant improvement and safe operation (Peres et al. 2016). Therefore, a well-organized building regulation system is crucially important (Pedro et al. 2009). Building procedures are functions to guarantee basic construction quality and to confirm that new buildings are constructed at the right location (De Decker 2013). According to Tasantab (2016), building permits are the documents that grant approval to build or construct buildings in approved locations, and such legal documents cover any property whose working drawings are suitable for the implementation of human dwelling. According to Bergeron (2003), across the globe, building regulatory systems are experiencing intensive change in response to changing political environments and stakeholder needs. The building regulatory system is formed by the combination of guidance documents, building regulations, standards, enforcement mechanisms and other related support measures (Inter-jurisdiction Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC) 2010; Pedro et al. 2009). Building regulation is a collection of prescriptive specifications that give directive on how buildings should be built, and prescriptive regulations are useful to enforcement officials during the review and checking of the construction works for compliance with the specifications (Inter-jurisdiction Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC) 2010).

Building regulations provide a clear understanding of the technical requirements in the building system (Sheridan et al. 2003). In the practice of building control and regulations, the quality of materials used in the building project will be of paramount importance, amongst others. The study by Lychgate Projects Ltd. (2012) revealed that building control helps in achieving project objectives such as risk reduction and delivering safe buildings. Building regulations provide building users with confidence that buildings of the same type built within a vicinity are benchmarked against the same standards and can minimize the uncertainties in the transactions of new building construction (Inter-jurisdiction Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC) 2010). The important elements of the Building Control service, as outlined by Lychgate Projects Ltd. (2012), are as follows: co-operative and helpful, provides timely advice and service, professional, responsive, flexible, offers advice proactively, part of the project team and gives good quality technical advice.

Performance indicators have proven to be an efficient and helpful assessment tool for many organizations (McNamee et al. 2009). As defined by Fernando et al. (2018), performance measurement is a process by which organizations assess the delivery of its goals and objectives within the organisational activities, and it helps in achieving client satisfaction, monitoring work progress and drive change. According to Visscher et al. (2003), the effectiveness of a regulatory scheme is defined as the technique that the regulations contribute to its clear goals. Visscher et al. (2003) further explained that the effectiveness of the whole scheme of building control can be determined by the real quality of the buildings, and the alternative to measure the effectiveness is found in some indicators for the way the system of building control functions. The four major groups of building control performance indicators, as outlined by Building Control Performance Standards Advisory Group (2017), include: (a) procedure for management of building control compliance operations, (b) complaints treatment procedures, (c) outline of building control works and (d) building control staff. As outlined by Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works (2010) to achieve compliance of building with regulatory requirements, the relevant authorities should use the following three-step processes: (a) develop a legal compliance strategy for the project, (b) assess the project against appropriate codes and (c) keep all records of the assessment process with the relevant authorities. Figure 1 summarises the four major groups of building control performance indicators and its constituents’ factors (i.e. what is expected on each group). A legal compliance strategy is a document that identifies all building regulatory requirements that apply to a specific building project and outlines a process to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements (Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works 2010).

Fig. 1

The survey findings used in this study were obtained from six states in Nigeria, which cover the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja).

The study used the snowball sampling method. According to Showkat and Parveen (2017), the snowball sampling method is a non-probability sampling technique, which is also known as referral sampling, and as stated by Alvi (2016), it is valuable in approaching population that is not readily obtainable. The instrument used for this research is questionnaire. The respondents were requested to specify the level of practice of building control and regulations using performance indicators of building control and regulations in a recently completed building project they were involved in, on a scale of 1–5. Table 1 shows the five-point Likert rating scale values assigned to different options used in the questionnaire.

A total of 117 questionnaires were sent out to different classes of project managers across the six states of the geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Out of the 117 questionnaires distributed, 73 completed questionnaires were adequately completed and returned, representing a response rate of 62.4%, which indicates a good response rate.

Percentage, frequency, mean, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and Kruskal–Wallis test were adopted to analyse the data collected from the participants. SPSS v.23 was used.

The age bracket of the respondents less than 30 years represents 2.7% of the survey participants, as shown in Table 2. The results in Table 2 also indicate that 86.3% of the respondents are within the age bracket of 36 and above 51 years. This shows that the respondents are mature to participate in the study. It was also revealed in Table 2 that respondents who held the project manager title have the highest percentage of the participants (52%), whereas the respondents who held the executive project manager title have the least percentage (11%). Furthermore, respondents with the following professional background contributed more in the study, namely, builder, architect and civil engineer with 30.1%, 23.3% and 23.3%, respectively, as shown in Table 2. In addition, the respondents with academic qualification M.Sc. participated more in the study (43.8%), followed by those with BSc/BTech (35.6%); the least participation was of HND and PhD holders with 1.4% each. The results shown in Table 2 also reveal that all the respondents have a minimum of 5 years of experience in construction activities, and 80.8% of the respondents had been practising from 11 years to more than 31 years. This indicates that the participants’ ability to partake in the survey was good and satisfactory.

Thirty-five performance indicators for building control and regulations were identified for the survey. The participants, grouped into three, were requested to specify the level of practice of building control and regulations agencies in their respective locations as shown in Table 3. Table 3 shows the mean rank, chi-square and mean values for the 35 performance indicators. The mean of these variables ranges from 2.08 to 2.84, which indicates a moderate level of practice, and the mean of remaining 25 variables range from 3.07 to 3.77, indicating an average level of practice of building control and regulations in Nigeria, as shown in Table 3. To determine the association between the variables, the Kruskal–Wallis test was run using the SPSS v.23. The result in Table 3 shows that there is a statistically significant difference in some of the factors that influence the practice of building control and regulations, whereas most of the factors that influence the practice of building control and regulation showed no difference (p > 0.05) among the targeted respondents. This indicates that there is a gap in the practice of building control and regulations that needs to be standardized in order to have an effective and efficient building control and regulations practice in Nigeria.

A non-parametric test, which is Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, was used to measure the extent of agreement in reply to the participated three classes of project managers, concerning the performance indicators that influence building control and regulations practice in Nigeria. SPSS v.23 was used to run the test, and the results obtained were highly significant, as revealed in Table 4. Hence, the study rejected the null hypothesis and concludes that there is a statistically significant degree of agreement among the three different classes of project managers concerning their responses.