FACTORS AFFECTING PROJECT PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN MOMBASA COUNTY, KENYA

The study was about factors affecting project performance of public construction projects in Mombasa County. The study was guided by both general and specific objectives. To strengthen the conceptual framework the study used theory of constraints, project management competency theory and control theory. The study target population was180 and sample size was 126. This study adopted a cross-sectional research design. A modified Likert scale questionnaire was developed and divided into three parts. A pilot study was carried out to refine the instrument. The quality and consistency of the study was further assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Data analysis was performed on a computer using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Version 25) for Windows. Data was presented in form of means, standard deviation, percentages and tables. Findings show that there was a strong positive correlation between project staff competencies, project monitoring and evaluation and project risk management and there was no correlation between project resource mobilization and performance of public projects in Mombasa County. The study findings further showed project staff competencies and project monitoring and evaluation have a significant effect on project performance of public construction projects in Mombasa County and project resource mobilization and project risk management have no effect on project performance of public construction projects in Mombasa County. The study recommends that counties should continuously train construction experts to be able to build their capacity as well as competencies to be able to deliver quality works and on time within the budgets; that counties should design better monitoring and evaluation tools to be adopted in service delivery; that counties should undertake projects that they have sufficient financial resources and human capacity to deliver the work and that counties should partner with the public under PPPs to deliver on projects where there have no sufficient resources. Key Terms: Project Staff Competencies, Project Evaluation, Project Resource Mobilization, Project Risk Management CITATION : Kawera, F., & Datche, E. (2023). Factors affecting project performance of public construction projects in Mombasa County, Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 10 (4), 601 – 619. http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v10i4.2777.