John Myers Jr., Business Reporter

KPMG Jamaica partner and head of advisory services, Raymond Campbell, says Jamaica may have to adjust its procurement policies. - File

A new study has found that there is global shortage of construction professionals, and a top auditing and advisory firm is saying that large development projects in Jamaica are likely to experience a delay in execution as a result.

Raymond Campbell, a partner of KPMG in Jamaica, says the shortage was more evident on projects such as the construction of highways, hospitals and hotels.

In addition, he pointed out that the global survey done by KPMG International - titled Construction procurement for the 21st century - has found that the human resource constraints had direct bearing on cost and time overruns.

"The difficulty in finding people of the right calibre is highlighted at all stages of project planning, from procurement to delivery - including internal resources able to contract, tender and manage large-scale projects and third-party contractors hired to deliver them," KPMG reported in the survey findings.

Local construction

Although the survey was conducted among construction owners internationally, Campbell noted that the findings resonated with those in local construction.

He pointed to the problems recently with finding suitable qualified professionals to work on the multi-purpose stadium in Trelawny for the Cricket World Cup and several of the large hotel projects on the North Coast.

Furthermore, he stressed that this could have implications for Jamaica as it relates to the availability of qualified professionals in the years ahead, saying the country would have to compete with other nations for imported talent.

Campbell reasoned that the shortage of qualified construction professionals came about because development had outpaced training.

He explained that the rate of development, especially in places like China and India and other parts of Asia, had increased significantly in the last 10 years when compared with the previous period.

And this trend is expected to grow at an even faster rate in the next 10 years, he said, presenting even more challenges for the industry, the survey found.

In the case of Jamaica, the construction industry has grown consistently at nine per cent and above since 2001, except for last year when it declined slightly to 9.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as opposed to 9.9 per cent in 2005.

The Planning Institute of Jamaica attributed last year's decline to the disruption in cement supplies as the island's sole supplier, Caribbean Cement Company Ltd struggled to meet demand and maintain quality.

According to the PIOJ, there were nine public projects underway on the island last year: Norman Manley International Airport Expansion and Upgrade, the Sangster International Airport Expansion, Highway 2000, the Half-Way Tree Transportation Centre, the Kingston Container Terminal expansion, Northern Coastal Highway, Trelawny Multipurpose stadium and upgrade of Sabina Park for CWC.

The contracts for these projects were awarded to multinational construction companies. Private projects, included several major hotels on the North Coast, mainly developed by Spanish investors.

Incidence of fraud

The incidence of fraud on large construction projects was another major problem on the increase, the KPMG survey also found.

But in an effort to cope with cost over runs, the KPMG partner said multinational construction companies are now opting to take on Guaranteed Maximum Priced (GMP) contracts which allow for cost adjustments, rather than fixed priced contracts which limit flexibility.

Campbell said this could mean for Jamaica a review of procurement policies to make them more flexible and attractive in order to woo the limited pool of competent contractors available to undertake major developments.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com