Public Building Supervisors’ Assessment of Site Progress Record Keeping Practices in Abuja, Nigeria

The importance of good site progress records in quality assurance; tracking project progress; preparing, analyzing and resolving claims; and placing responsibilities in the event of dispute in building contracts is widely recognized. This study engaged Public Building Supervisors in the assessment of site progress record keeping practices in Abuja. A simple structured questionnaire (which mainly assessed the nature and importance of records kept, reasons for keeping them; level of satisfaction with the current approach, challenges and practical ways of improving the practice) was administrated to a hundred of the supervisors, out of which seventy one was properly completed and returned. The results show that all five site progress documents (minutes of progress meetings, day-work sheets, photographs, weekly site records and personal site diaries) found in literature, are in use in Abuja, and have at least a high importance rating (i.e., relative importance index, 0.6≤RII<0.8). Prominent among the reasons for keeping the records are: control of ongoing work (R11=0.83) data for estimating future works and terms of contract requirement (each with RII=0.823).Though the present record keeping practices were largely assessed satisfactory, 95% of the Supervisors still yearned for improvement. The challenges to the current practice are consistent with those identified in literature and are: continuity consistency, legibility and accountability; in descending order of frequency of occurrence. Computerization, regular inspection of progress documents by assigned supervisors and in-house training of site staff are recommended for improving the record keeping practices