The challenges within the public procurement process are widespread in many countries and often contribute to conflicts and disputes in public construction projects. Addressing the root causes of these problems during the pre-contract stage is critical to minimising disputes in the post-contract stage. This requires competent professionals with the appropriate expertise. Therefore, this paper aims at developing a competency requirement framework for the procurement team in the pre-contract stage to minimise disputes in public construction projects.
Adopting a pragmatist stance, this study uses a mixed-methods choice comprising a comprehensive literature review, a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with experts. Quantitative and qualitative empirical data were analysed using statistical methods and code-based content analysis with NVivo, respectively.
The results reveal 28 significant root causes of problems in the public procurement process during the pre-contract stage, with inadequate knowledge of procurement regulations and lack of procurement skills among project team members identified as the most significant. Furthermore, this study proposes the competencies required for procurement teams during each phase of the pre-contract stage, aligned with the RIBA Plan of Work 2020, resulting in 45 distinct competencies.
This study offers novel insights into the relationship between procurement team competencies and dispute minimisation in public construction projects. It provides a structured framework that can guide the recruitment, development and training of procurement professionals, being one of the first studies to explore this topic in such depth.
