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© 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 
 

Asian Review of Environmental and Earth Sciences 
Vol. 9, No. 1, 18-22, 2022 

ISSN(E) 2313-8173 / ISSN(P) 2518-0134 
DOI: 10.20448/arees.v9i1.4339 

© 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 

 
 

 
 
 
Quality Control Compliance as an Environmental Response to Sustainability in the 
Nigerian Construction Industry 

 
Amadi Alolote Ibim1   

Amadi Kelvin Chijioke2   

 
 

( Corresponding Author)  
1Department of Quantity Surveying, Rivers State University, P.M.B 5080, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 
Email: amadialolote@yahoo.com  
2Department of General Studies, Elechi-Amadi Polytechnic, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 
Email: kamadi620@gmail.com  

 
Abstract 

The concept of sustainability has become integral to the environmental dialect within the building 
construction industry. At present, providing an avenue by which the construction industry can 
meet its sustainability obligations has remained a topical issue globally. An environmentally 
oriented movement toward sustainability in building construction, however, still hinges on the 
traditional principles of cost, quality, and performance. This paper x-rays the unethical 
performance traits evident in the construction industry in Nigeria and the project delivery 
practices by indigenous firms that significantly influence the quality and thus the sustainability of 
construction output. Issues associated with quality control compliance are statistically analysed to 
determine existing trends. Multivariate analysis is deployed to measure the degree to which 
quality control parameters explain the participation level of indigenous local contractors in 
executing government projects. The study mathematically expresses the relationship between 
quality control adherence and indigenous participation in the execution of government contracts. 
The statistical analysis shows that the five quality control independent variables (internal 
organizational factor; the level of enlightenment; adequacy of designs; conducting of relevant tests 
and supervisory adherence) explain 47% of the variation in the level of indigenous participation. 
Poor quality control associated with the execution of contracts by indigenous construction 
companies in Nigeria may thus partly account for the low level of indigenous participation evident 
in the construction industry. 

 
Keywords: Construction industry, Ethics, Indigenization, Local content, Projects, Quality control. 

 
Citation | Ibim, A. A., & Chijioke, A. K. (2022). Quality Control 
Compliance as an Environmental Response to Sustainability in the 
Nigerian Construction Industry. Asian Review of Environmental and 
Earth Sciences, 9(1), 18–22. 10.20448/arees.v9i1.4339 
History:  
Received: 2 September 2022 
Revised: 10 October 2022 
Accepted: 18 November 2022 
Published: 14 December 2022 
Licensed: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 

Attribution 4.0 License  
Publisher:  Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 
 

Funding: This study received no specific financial support. 
Authors’ Contributions: Both authors contributed equally to the conception 
and design of the study. 
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of 
interest. 
Transparency: The authors confirm that the manuscript is an honest, 
accurate, and transparent account of the study; that no vital features of the 
study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned 
have been explained. 
Ethical: This study followed all ethical practices during writing. 

 

 

Contents 
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 
2. Method of Study ............................................................................................................................................................................... 19 
3. Results and Findings ....................................................................................................................................................................... 20 
4. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 21 
References .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 22 
 

 
 

 

 

mailto:amadialolote@yahoo.com
mailto:kamadi620@gmail.com
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://www.doi.org/10.20448/arees.v9i1.4339
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0569-6604
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5101-6799


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Contribution of this paper to the literature 
The study statistically explores the cause-effect relationship between the level of quality control 
by indigenous contracting firms in Nigeria and their level of participation in public projects. 
This is against the backdrop of the paucity of empirical literature, whereby most studies only 
report descriptive outcomes on the variables. 

 
1. Introduction 

There have been repeated calls for increased “local content” i.e., indigenous participation in the construction of 
capital projects in Nigeria, against the backdrop of foreign firms’ domination of the construction sector. Two major 
concerns involving project delivery by indigenous construction firms however can be identified; one is the quality 
of construction output in the industry [1]. One is the quality of construction projects executed by local 
construction firms in Nigeria as evidenced by the several reported cases of premature building failure [2, 3]. The 
other is the widespread notion that unethical performance plagues indigenous construction companies in Nigeria 
[4].  

Quality assurance epitomizes the confidence that construction works adhere to the design requirements of 
durability, safety, and functionality as well as serviceability, economy, and aesthetics Okereke [5]; Lakshmi [6]; 
Adekeye, et al. [7]. Abdulkareem and Adeoti [1] study reveals that the primary measures of quality control 
carried out on building sites in Nigeria are owners and unskilled supervision; supervision by skilled technical 
personnel and supervision by professional consultants. Abdulkareem and Adeoti [1] study however showed that 
the majority of construction projects in Nigeria are supervised by the building owners, and in some cases, semi-
skilled or unskilled personnel are engaged to carry out the supervision [3, 4, 8]. In these instances, adherence to 
quality standards is not ensured, and the supervisors lack the technical and professional capacity to control quality. 
Non-adherence to drawings and material specifications is often the case and the contractors stand to gain financial 
benefits. Only a handful of individual construction projects are supervised by skilled professionals [6, 9]. 
Supervision by professionals is mostly found on Government projects, where they serve as consultants to the 
government, by reporting and evaluating the progress of works at regular intervals.  Previous research has 
evaluated compliance with government regulatory policies, the perception of professionals, and barriers to 
adherence to Quality Control [2, 8, 10, 11].  

Ethical issues have however plagued the performance of government projects in different parts of the world 
Rodriguez, et al. [12]; Bowen, et al. [13]; Rose-Ackerman [14]; Sichombo, et al. [15]. Wasserman [16] asserted 
that ethics encompasses the thought, dialectal, cognitive processes, and decisions that dictate the choices made by 
people in their daily lives concerning their effect on the well-being of others. This definition aptly captures the 
Nigerian scenario as there appears to be a twisted and astonishingly flexible value system in the general acceptance 
level of what is regarded as ethical.  Bribery and corruption which is rife in the system of governance and 
organizational setup, both in private and public holdings seem to constitute an acceptable standard of conduct 
amongst Nigerians [7]. As such, genuine outcry against perceived misappropriation of public funds allocated to 
various sectors of the economy and for infrastructural development are “swept under the rug” by the powers that 
be. The “Share the National Cake” mentality is thus a major obstacle in the wheel of progress as to the level of 
economic growth and development that the country has the potential to achieve [17]. The impact of this value 
system is far-reaching in its effect, as it has pervaded across all facets of human endeavor and trickled down along 
generational lines. Unethical and corrupt practices in the country popularly tagged the “Nigerian Factor” have 
negatively affected the construction industry and the level of quality assurance in Nigeria. From the professionals 
who are the custodian of the confidential information, to the contractors and even hired labour on-site, corruption 
has eaten deep into the fabric of industry practice in Nigeria.  Professionals whose major obligation is to ensure 
that the successful contractor is capable of offering good quality output at the lowest tender figure may disregard 
integrity and the ethics of their profession in return for financial gains.   
 

2. Method of Study 
A survey of construction professionals was carried out the assess the nature of quality control practices in Port 

Harcourt Metropolis. This is similar to the study by Opara and Uche [10].  The study considered the current 
volume and spread of major construction projects in the country. Data for this purpose was obtained from pre-
coded questionnaires that were administered to a random selection of building professionals as contained from the 
listing of professionals and registered contractors in the study area. The key objective of the data analysis was to 
measure the degree to which quality control parameters explain the level of participation of indigenous contractors 
in the execution of government projects. The study administered well-structured and sectioned questionnaires 
which were distributed online. These were based on a representative sample of 292 respondents made up of 
Consultants, Clients, Contractors, and allied professionals in various locations as shown in Table 1.   
 

Table 1. Distribution of respondents. 

Types of respondents No 

Consultants 26 

Client and client representative 31 
Contractors  72 
Other professionals 122 
Total  251 

 

The response rate to distributed questionnaires however was 86% with a total of 251 returned. Most of the 
respondents were registered in one or more professional bodies with a significant number of years of working 
experience. The analysis explored two sets of variables for the study, targeted at extracting quality control 
measures adopted by respondents and project procurement processes and activities that were mostly associated 
with unethical and corrupt practices. The basic sequence of the analytical strategy that was adopted to obtain 



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relevant and objective results from data collated during fieldwork is as follows: The analysis begins by examining 
existing quality control measures adhered to by respondents in their respective locations and a quantitative value 
obtained for the qualitative adequacy of these measures in determining industry output. in terms of the percentage 
frequency distribution. The Qualitative Adequacy Value (QAV) for the study location was obtained based on the 
product of the arithmetic mean of the qualitative index that would be assigned to these variables on a 3-point 
rating scale and the frequency of pre-coded responses as a percentage of the cumulative. Criteria for determining 
adequacy were based on a predetermined interval classification of computed QAVs, the maximum value of the 
index being 1.0. The assessment of the variables was done based on the mean weighted scores to obtain the overall 
rating for the level of adherence to quality control. As a final step in this phase, a multi-variate multiple 
classification analysis (MCA) [18] was then deployed to explain the level of indigenous participation in 
government construction contracts as extracted from questionnaire responses, relative to the number of major 
government contracts executed. MCA is a bivariate response of regression analysis technique that predicts the 
dependent variable based on membership/categories of the independent predictor variables. MCA can be 
mathematically expressed as: 
 

𝑌𝑖𝑗…𝑛 = 𝑌 + 𝑎𝑖 + 𝑏𝑗+ . . … . . … 𝑒𝑖𝑗 … . . .𝑛                                      (1) 

 
 
Three sets of coefficients are generated via Multiple Classification Analysis: eta/eta2, beta/ beta2, and multiple 

correlation coefficient r-squared (r2).  
Eta/eta2:  Eta values are indicative of the predictor ability of the specified categories in explaining the 

variation triggered in the dependent variable. Eta as a correlation ratio is thus indicative of the percentage of the 
total sum of squares that is explained by the predictor variable. 

Beta/beta2: Similar to the eta statistics, the Beta/beta2 represents the explanatory capacity of the predictor 
variables but is computed using the adjusted as opposed to the raw means. Beta statistics thus reflect the degree of 
explanation provided by the predictor variable to account for the variation in the dependent variable after 
adjustments have been made for the combined effects of other predictor variables.  

Multiple Correlation Coefficient (r-squared): The multiple correlation coefficient provides an aggregated 
explanation of the amount of variation in the dependent variable as collectively accounted for by the predictor 
variables. This technique will be used to analyse generated data collated from responses to structured 
questionnaires to develop a multivariate model mathematically displaying expression for the association between 
the degree of quality control adherence and the extent of indigenous participation in the execution of government 
contracts as indicated by responses as to the number of major government projects executed/participated in by 
respondents.  
 

3. Results and Findings 
Table 2 is a breakdown of the acceptability criteria used in rating the level of compliance with quality control. 

 
Table 2. Quality control compliance criteria rating for acceptability. 

Percentage  Rating 

81% - 100% Excellent 
66% - 80%  Very Good 
51% - 65%  Good 
36% - 50% Fair 
0% - 35%     Poor 

 
Table 3 is a summary of the questionnaire responses provided by the respondents on the quality control 

measures adopted. 
Table 4 shows the number of major government/public projects executed by the sampled indigenous 

contractors. 
The weighted values of these responses were thus analysed using MCA to produce a multiple regression model 

for the level of indigenous participation. Table 5  shows the results of the MCA indicating the quality control 
compliance variables in accounting for the variation in indigenous participation. 

Table 5 shows that taken together, the five quality control independent variables (internal organizational 
factor; the level of enlightenment; adequacy of designs; conducting of relevant tests, and supervisory adherence) 
explain 47% of the variance reported in the level of indigenous participation. As the findings show, 41.2% of the 
respondents were of the view that the level of quality control adherence is fair. However, the majority of the 
respondents (53.3%) were not of this view. Pointers to specific areas of poor-quality control are evident in the 
response pattern.  
 
 
 
 
 

 



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Table 3. Analysis of questionnaire responses on Construction Industry Quality control measures. 

S/No Items Yes % No % No response % 

1. Internal organizational factor 
a. Observance of Q.C  
in the company     

52.0 38.8 9.2 

b. Record keeping of quality control results 46.8 48.0 5.2 
c. Presence of communication between quality control professionals and 
management 

71.6 7.4 11.0 

2. Level of Enlightenment 
a. Enlightenment of tradesmen                  35.2 60.8 4.0 
b. Suppliers and Contractors are aware of Q.C provision in the project. 22.8 70.8 6.4 
3. Adequacy of Designs  
2. Adherence at the design stage 56.4 42.0 1.61 
3. Adequate Specification and detailing of elements 92.4 4.0 3.6 
4. Conduction of relevant tests 
a. Conduction of geotechnical analysis for foundation  4.0 78.0 18.0 
b. Conduction of Concrete tests  36.0 53.2 10.8 
c. Conduction of Aggregate tests 20.8 69.6 9.6 
d. Conduction of Cement tests  2.8 97. 2 0.0 
e. Reinforcement strength tests as to Q.C 64.0 32.0 4.0 
5. Supervisory Adherence 
a. Project supervisors normally insist on quality control of materials 62.4 34.0 3.6 

b. Town Planning and relevant agencies are involved in Q.C compliance 14.0 78.8 7.2 
c. Adequate checks by the project owner’s representative for defective work 
before approval of payment 

36.9 53.7 9.5 

Mean % 41.2 53.3 5.5 
Rating Fair   

 
Table 4. Number of major government/public projects executed by respondents. 

Number of Government Projects 
executed 

% of respondents Average No of years of working 
Experience 

0 – 5 45 7 
6 -10 17 16 

11 – 15 23 12 
15 – 20 9 13 

< 20 6 22 

 
Table 5. Explanatory variation in the level of indigenous participation in the execution of government contracts. 

S/No Explanatory Variables Eta Beta 

1 Internal organizational factor 0.25 0.20 (4) 
2  Level of Enlightenment 0.23 0.17 (5) 
3 Adequacy of Designs 0.36 0.50 (1) 
4 Conducting relevant tests 0.22 0.41 (2) 
5 Supervisory Adherence 0.10 0.24 (3) 

 r2 = 0.47 

 

4. Conclusion 
This study has highlighted Issues of quality control related to indigenous construction companies as an 

explanation for the low level of indigenous participation in government projects. This is also considered to be 
closely linked to ethical issues which plague the Nigerian construction industry, and which have been a cause for 
public concern. As the study reiterates, in the Nigerian scenario there appears to be a twisted and astonishingly 
flexible value system in the general acceptance level of what is regarded as ethical.  Bribery and corruption which is 
rife in the system of governance and organizational setup, both in private and public holdings seem to constitute an 
acceptable standard of conduct amongst Nigerians. As such, the genuine outcry against perceived misappropriation 
of public funds allocated to various sectors of the economy and for infrastructural development are “swept under 
the rug” by the powers that be. The “Share the National Cake” mentality is thus a major obstacle in the wheel of 
progress as to the level of economic growth and development that the country has the potential to achieve. The 
impact of this value system is far-reaching in its effect, as it has pervaded across all facets of human endeavor and 
trickled down along generational lines. Unethical and corrupt practices in the country popularly tagged the 
“Nigerian Factor” has negatively affected the construction industry and the level of quality assurance in Nigeria. 
From the professionals who are the custodian of the confidential information, to the contractors and even hired 
labour on-site, corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of industry practice in Nigeria. Nonetheless, quality control 
issues such as the level of enlightenment; internal organizational factors; adequacy of designs; supervisory 
adherence, and conducting of relevant tests have been empirically shown to affect the level of indigenous 
participation in government projects. Tackling these issues alongside the underlying ethical menace which 
pervades the construction industry will create a more sustainable backdrop for ensuring quality control in public 
projects.  Against this backdrop, the following recommendations are preferred: 

• New laws should be promulgated with more stringent measures to curb ethical corrosion. 

• One-man construction companies should be banned, and rigorous background checks should be carried out 
to ascertain the competence of contractors. 

• E-contracting along with the providing of necessary performance bonds should be promoted to ensure a 
higher level of transparency in public project procurement. 



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