Overview of Cost Engineering Principles: Creating the Awareness for Effective Project Administration

Abstract

The transformation agenda of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria seeks to define new and better ways of doing business with a view of reducing cost of projects and governance. However, it has been observed that the eventual cost of most engineering projects has always been on the increase. This is more with government owned projects. It was discovered that the reason for this is that most engineers do not apply the principles of cost because they do not fully understood these principles and have to depend on the judgement of a quantity surveyor. Quantity surveyors unfortunately do not understand engineering principles and so their judgement is often in error, thereby creating a high variation between the estimated and actual cost of a project. A cost engineer however understands and applies sound engineering and cost principles to bring out a project estimate that varies very little from the actual project cost. However, not many engineers are aware of the available services of a cost engineer in regards to project planning and control. This paper therefore seeks to create an awareness of the field of engineering study, “cost engineering” with the hope that engineers would seek to acquire the knowledge of cost engineering, or employ the services of one.