Complexity of projects

Infrastructure projects can be complex due to the nature of the work, and the number of different organisations, specialities and trades involved. 

As a result, the inter-relationship between events is often uncertain.  

This may make it difficult to identify why something has gone wrong, why there has been a delay, or why costs have overrun, and who is responsible. 

This makes it easier for project participants to make false allegations and submit false claims.

For example, two key events may occur on a project which delay the contractor in completing the works: (1) the engineer instructs the contractor to carry out a variation to the contract scope of works; and (2) a subcontractor delivers steel to the site late.  The contract programme may be complex, with a large number of activities impacting on the time the contractor requires to complete the works.  It may be difficult to ascertain what actual impact the above two events have on the programme.  This may result in a dispute as to cause and effect where the parties genuinely believe in their own position.  However, it is possible that the contractor may take advantage of this complexity to fraudulently claim that the engineer’s instruction had a greater delaying impact than it actually did, or, conversely, the project owner may fraudulently deny any actual impact.

This complexity also means that it is difficult to establish whether a problem is caused by corruption or mismanagement.