Industrial review and development of a cost management system for the Greek construction industry

The Greek construction industry is considered as the engine of the Greek economy. Although there is an evidence of prosperity and financial growth of the Greek economy, this has only partially affected the Greek construction industry (GCI). For the past 20 years the construction industry has suffered from decreasing profitability, competitiveness and market share. The majority of the construction contractors are unable to cost, manage and control projects especially in terms of completing and delivering the work within budget, time and final product quality. Therefore, the GCI needs to restructure itself especially in terms of cost planning, monitoring and control. The objective of this paper is to review current practices of cost management and control for public construction projects (i.e. schools, hospitals, industrial units, public offices, etc.) in Greece. The data were collected using the 'Semi-Structured Interviews' and a number of Greek construction contractors were participated. The results of the interviews have specified the problematic issues that GCI facing today in tendering, cost planning, monitoring and control as well as identified the expectations of the GCI experts for better financial management and cost control. In addition the paper briefly presents a new approach for cost management and control which is based on the real needs of the GCI contractors for better cost planning and control.