A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management, School of Engineering and Technology

Thesis (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2017

Risk and uncertainty are common things in all construction projects regardlessof size, location, complexity and other construction work{u2019}s characteristics. For many years they paid very poor attention regarding to risk andrisk management in construction industry which both clients and contractors have suffered as the result. These issue in construction management caused that major projects have been facing delay, cost overrun and poor quality. Afghanistan like many other developing countries, has faced many problemswhich caused very bad impacts especially on public construction projects. One of these problems is, lack of a proper system to identify and evaluate the risks which through make planning to implement risk management practices to harness these risk in construction projects.This research focuses on identification and assessment of the significant contractual risks in public construction projects from owner perspective. A questionnaire survey involving 50 contractual risk factor which are causing delay, cost overrun and poor quality in public construction projects, was design, distributed and collected form 97 professional engineers who have been working or worked in public construction projects in Afghanistan. As the result top 20 significant risk factors which have the highest frequency and impact schedule, cost and quality in public construction projects were identified. Moreover, a questionnaire survey involving these top 20 major risk factors was distribute and collected from 11very expert and professional engineers. The third questionnaire survey involving the top 20 major risk factor and solutions for individual risks, was designed and conducted to rank and select the best solutionsfor each significant risk factor.The most significant risks which have high ranks in both frequency of occurrence and degree of impact: Lack of qualified contractors (R02), Bribery and corruption in public construction project{u2019}s related organizations (R21), Inadequate monitoring of subcontractor{u2019}s work (R28), Lack of qualified subcontractors (R06), and inadequate amount of machinery, equipment and labor at the site (R47). Moreover, Lack of qualified contractor(R02)is the source of most of contractualrisks in public construction projects in Afghanistan. Therefore, the government need to invest to solve this issue in priority.