ASSESSMENT OF ETHICAL PRACTICES AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF PUBLIC HOUSING DELIVERY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Housing is a critical basic need, the third essential of life after food and clothing. Housing policies initiated by past successive governments in Nigeria have had low record of success due to two main reasons- lack of consistency/continuity in government policies and lack of ethical practices/corruption. This study focuses on the second reason only and aims to examine the ethical performance in housing delivery. Review of construction management literature revealed that unethical practices in construction industry consists mainly of conflicts of interest, tender rigging, kickbacks and collusive pricing. Unethical practices have serious negative effects on construction industry, manifesting mostly as reduction in the quality of finished products. Based on findings from review of methodologies employed in related literature, this study proposes to adopt a mixed methods approach that will utilise questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. This will enable the study draw conclusions as to how the industry can best tackle the occurrence of unethical practices.