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500 Beds North Jeddah Hospital Project- In Worst State of

Construction Project Management
Claimer:
1. Following statement is based purely on personal professional experience & field studies of the
project undergoing construction. This statement should be used only for understanding possible
management problems on projects. I am solely responsible for any consequences whatsoever,
after the posting is made public. I could not go to the Head Office of the organization due to the
fact that my visa was based on Non Muslim category that makes entry to Makkah banned
according to KSA emigration laws.

2. A Status Report on its state of affairs for information that this can also happen in construction
world somewhere. Contractor has been informed about missing management. I tried to mobilize
Management System to some extent at this stage of the critical project but, was not supported by
either authority. Owners rightly believed in persons associated with them for more than 10 years.
Why should they believe in a person just joined their organization?

3. Egyptian top manager of director level obstructed my ways reaching to management

implementation procedures. Arabic lack of knowledge also, came in my way barricading me from
system implementation. Even then, I tried my best for many months but, could not overcome
resistance from Egyptian consolidation for many years. I issued many circulars & held meetings
but, it did not work. I shall try to post certain snaps also for your references giving all types of
quality reflections. Resistance to carry out works was seen at all corners. One progressive step
was pulled back by two steps back by those people who have determined not to do work fast. It
was not suitable for me to kick out nearly full team comprising many nationalities which state lead

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me to kick out myself only. I had faced certain threats to my life also three times during strikes for
non payments of salaries for many months.

Project Components Brief:

Construction Cost 250 million Saudi Riyals. More than 50000 Sqm Covered Area
1. Main Building, (aluminum curtain walls & cladding envelope) 2 levels building plus basement.
2. Tower 6 level plus basement, Rear Area 2 storey real part of operation areas plus basement,
(aluminum curtain walls & cladding envelope).
3. Basement Tunnel, accommodating all major services infrastructure through it.
4. Supporting Services as indicated below:
• CCTV system for covering all areas in the building.
• BMS, (building management with structured cabling system).
• Fire prevention (Fire alarm & smoke detection system).
• Medical gas (all medical gases infrastructure).
• Bed head units (all patient bed to be provided with bed head units).
• Surgical panels.
• Nurse call system, (all patient bed to be linked with).
• OT, Isolation, CCU, ICU, Casualty, Wards.
• Electrical Supplies Low, Medium High & Power Voltage, Bus Bars.
• HVAC supplies centralized system based on Chilled water system as well as package units based.
Roof of buildings utilized for generally all HVAC system.
• Earth & Lightening system provided.
5. Services & ancillary Building to accommodate standby generators & its part of Tunnel operative
services, pump house. Silencers to be mounted on its roof.

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6. Switch Gear room, Transformer room.

7. Medical Waste Collection Building.
8. Chilled Water Pump room, (6 pumps each 125 hp).
9. Chiller Area Compound, (6 machine units 250 tonnes each).
10. Single Female Building meant to accommodate nurses, (aluminum windows finishes envelope).
11. Kidney Centre, (aluminum curtain walls & cladding envelope).
12. Out Patient Building, (cladding envelope).
13. Mosque, Ordinary RCC building not started yet due to being on hold.
14. Guard Houses, Ordinary RCC building.
15. SECO (Saudi Electric Company for Electrical Main Supply) Room, Ordinary RCC building.
16. External Switch Gear, Ordinary RCC building.
17. Gates in boundary walls.
18. Sewage Treatment Plant, On hold yet , Ordinary RCC.
19. Boundary wall, Precast panels.
20. Landscape, Hard & soft both,
Underground pumping, Underground water tanks, Underground soft & treated water tanks.
21. External Sewage system including more than 100 manholes & also few sum pits.
22. External Fire fighting system to be installed in ring circuit or ring main.
23. Street lights with more than 90 poles.
24. Project has been in construction for about 6 years.
25. Structural framing completed long before.

What has happened during 6 years of its history?

1. Initially, this hospital was required to serve for 300 beds. Later it was upgraded to serve 500 beds.

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2. Considerable modifications were applied to structures & architecture components to meet

upgrading requirements.
3. Contractor accepted the responsibility for design modification while Ministry of Health KSA
accepted contractor to modify designs.
4. Unfortunately, contractor was not capable to modify the design but, messed up everything.
5. Realignment of walls & addition of floor were done.
6. RCC quality delivered exhibiting poor standards. Majority of walls were installed dry using cement
& gypsum boards fixed on metal supporting system. These systems were not strong enough to
sustain imposed stresses. Results were warping of surfaces due to long exposure to atmosphere.
7. Nether owner/MOH, nor consultant & nor contractor, bothered about these issues.
8. All contract documents being in Arabic language & all communications between MOH & contractor
are made in Arabic.
9. Project has generally been managed by Arabic engineers from top to bottom of hierarchy & in
particularly, from Egypt or Misris, who look not to be well educated. These engineers have zero
English knowledge & surprisingly it is really, how these engineers got higher engineering degrees
earned?
10. It was really a different world to work in. No working environment, no talking scenarios, no
professional communication, no company systems, no organizational processes, no project history
records.
11. Project was completed to an extent of 65 % when I joined & it was raised to 75 % when I left.
There was no control on 400 workers while, I tried my best.
12. Contractor did not usually release salaries for 4 months for no fault of employees, while employees
were not enthusiastic to willfully work.
13. Arabic engineers & others, just believed only in telephonic talks with no recording arrangements.
IT is something new for them.
14. TMS has been totally absent & in fact, these people do not know about that.

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15. No controls on staff reporting timings. No procedures for vacation or for resignations. One usually
waits for two months in case of resignation & at least, for one month if it is to avail leave vacation.
16. Project director had a practical requirement to survive & let other Egypt engineers & staff to survive
till next project is won for their deployment. Project was brought to such worst state that neither it
could be finished nor it could be abandoned as both are suicidal tendencies.
17. Budget not provided. Actual cost expenses not provided.
18. Payments made to Subcontractors not provided for records.
19. No details available to indicate cost to complete remaining works.
20. No details are available about quantities to be further procured to complete works.
21. Whole management is moving in doldrums without fixed target.
22. Contractor owner is not professionally qualified while trying to carry out project to their own layman
style. They can go to any extent including using gratification to client representatives.
23. In generally, majority of significant cases, consultants are bye passed.
24. MOH or client engineers often approve directly what is rejected by the consultants.
25. Since there has been operating no proper technical & other required managements, more than 50
% workforce do remain busy working on reworks heavily augmenting cost to the project. Reworks
add a lot of finishing items quantities wastage.
26. Engineers are not well qualified & experienced. They do not even know how to coordinate with
other disciplines.
27. Construction manager & other senior engineers do not know English. They are also bad
coordinators.
28. Foremen are not well qualified & experienced. Some of them do not even can understand English.
29. Only certain Asian foremen are well experienced.
30. No documents available for any discipline. One cannot know history of project.
31. No drawing controls for any discipline. Status of drawings approval or rejection is unknown.
Nobody knows the drawings on which works have been going on are whether or not, approved.

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32. Meetings are not supported by the management & project director as they consider these as
contributing to time wastage. They in fact do not know the meanings of coordination & technical
meetings & work output meetings.
33. Intention of the staff is to delay progress by whatever means possible. They have too successfully
delayed it as well.
34. Owner interferes in all activities where one should not do so. They do not know value of time &
provision of resources to an optimum.
35. Profession is operating negatively. Risks are compounding. Fortunately, owner is sound
financially.
36. Consultants too are not operating professionally since, they too are fed up on this project. They too
have followed obsolete management systems.
37. Generally, finishing works are done substandard every location. Unknown operations on quality.
38. Mechanical installations are getting rusted due to delay on commissioning. Exposed pipes have
rusted. Equipment are lying untested.
39. Integration of knowledge areas with project plan missing completely. No advanced management
applications.
40. No lessons are being learnt from failures. Many accidents occurred. Some workers injured badly.
Recently someone died also. Reworks too do not teach them.
41. Progress moving randomly without any real plan to achieve target or milestone. They do not
understand meaning of site planning.
42. Safety is a remote understanding for all of them. They neither intend to know & understand safety
nor have any concern about SHE. No Safety plan operating on project.
43. Quality is not known to any of them. They do not know about quality assurance. No Quality plan
operating on project.
44. Computerisation of project for management is another world for them. They do not realize power of
IT. I was surprised when Project Director questioned me why did I require computer when I had to

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manage construction. He asked me whether I would play games on computer? I replied angrily on
his statement & he was made shut up.
45. They were surprised on my mails to them. They generally replied on hard copies and in Arabic that
had no meaning for me. How to operate internet or intranet is a remote world for them?
46. All knowledge areas about Scope, Quality, Time, Cost, Risk, Human Resources, Procurement
& Communication remaining absent from Project Management of this project.
47. This is how as explained in foregoing, Kingdom of Saudi Arab operates in certain sectors.
48. In case of resignation by the employee, they deduct two months of remunerations as penalty for
leaving causing damage to the company. This deduction, they call compensation to the company
or organization. I also lost my settlement sums.

Particular Reference

Deteriorating Project Quality & Bad Performance

(Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
Alawi Tunsi Establishment

500 Beds North Jeddah Hospital

Now In Construction Stage
Salient Features of Performance:
1. Project running for 6 years.
2. Progress achieved physically 75 %

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3. Project Management principles applied only to an extent 20 % indicating non existing Project
management Refer to tabulated results below. No one is interested to improve.
4. Work quality substandard in general. No operation of systems.
5. Project not expected to complete soon. No time management. No cost management. No other
required management.

Issues of concerns:
1. Lead lining not provided as specified in walls of Operation Theatre rooms that can lead to
radiation leakage to patients, medicos, other staff & general public. Block walls constructed with
thinner lead lining inserted in. It is a risky detail constructed. Safety is at stake.
2. Main Building Tower & other buildings portions corridor marbles provided only 12 mm for
specified 20 mm thick. Contractor says that is a delivery by mistake but, it is well understood
that it is for making profits only.
3. False ceiling suspension hangers provided too weak. Many falls of suspension system have
been noticed by contractor. Clips of the system are too bad in manufacturing or production. Just
imagine, had the drop been on patients after commissioning, what would have happened?
4. Waterproofing applied on roofing & other wet areas do not work efficiently. Foam concrete is
allowed to exposure for many days that permits cracking on its surface.
5. Most dry walls are not specifically sound in design & installation, These are not properly
aligned due to bad material & inferior construction quality.
6. Wooden doors (wet areas) lamination is not to comply with specified density.
7. In majority of cases, consultants ZFP comments were overlooked by the MOH engineers
particularly, Eng Mansour, the Project Manager,

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8. Mechanical installations were placed in long back for years, which are getting corroded for
example, chilled water piping, chiller equipment, chilled water pumps, Air Handling Units etc. to
mention the least.
9. Electrical installations are also getting adversely effected as have been waiting
commissioning for years for example, generators, silencers etc.
10. Time is being wasted on modifications & reworks in the name of winning more extension
of time & making more monies. Longer granted extension would simply mean further quality
deterioration.
11. In general, Alawi Tunsi head office as well as project personnel are too poor in
professional qualifications & experience to successfully carry out such type of specialist
project. It is unfortunate that HH the king’s prestigious hospital has been allowed such low
profile treatment by ministry of health professionally.
12. More than 75 engineers & more than 15 Project Managers have moved out of this
project. No records are available with the contractor of the project history. Every Project
Manager has to step in & start new without any input.
13. ATE bye passes consultants all times by getting MOH influence for whatsoever problems are
faced by the ATE.

14. ATE is not well equipped with capacity & potential to deliver project in defined time with
successful performance of contract.

Project Management Plan Effected Without Operation & Knowledge Areas

Integration resulting in all delays & inefficiency on the project execution

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500 Beds North Jeddah Hospital KSA Being Constructed

WorkingManagement Status Analysis
AlawiT
u n
siE
stablishment
S ManagemenPoints 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# t Factor
1 SCOPE on 5 Define HH SPONSO BANK Contra Sub Share Unclear No No
Project Work ? KING RS ctor Contracto holders require Resea Correctio
Charter rs ment rch n
2 QUALITY 2 Structu Finish General Office Docum No No No No QA No
Assurance re No es No Not Records ents Lessons Training Audits Syste Correctio
Overall better required . No DCC. Learned m n
one availabiliNo
ty tracks
3 TIME 2 Initial Extend Rework No Unkno No No No No No
Contractual OK ed Too many studies wn revised recoveryanalysis Integra Updates
& Real Unclea limit plan tion
r
4 COST 2 No No No No Expen No real No Risks No No
ISSUEs Initial Extend Rework studies ses cash flow profits unkown data updates
budget ed budget unkno data
budget wn
5 RISK 2 Contra Real Price HR Claims Claims Material Insuffici No No
FACTORS ct time rise ? loss ? Issues issue losses ency of study Correctio

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Time loss ? Relation? to ? from ? unrecor executio for n

loss ? ded n anythi
ng
6 Human 2 All High No No No Salaries Frequen No No No
Resiurces Chang degree training safety develo delays t capacity efforts manage
ISSUES es No of arrangem arrange pment often transfer building ment of
Retenti Incom ents ments of staff s project
on petenc general
y ?
7 PROCURE 2 No No No No Delays Accountin No No No No
MENT proced section accountin central often g statisticsefficienc policy consider
ures workin g codes manage inefficient y ation
define g applied ment
d
8 COMMUNIC 1 No No IT Language No Old No Only No No No
ATION plan Issues external system records Phones tracking policy consider
links operati ation
ng
9 Total 18
Quality
Managemen
t evaluation
out of 80
1 Total 20 % Sinkin Sinkin Sinking Sinking Sinkin Sinking Sinking Sinking Sinkin Sinking
0 Quality g Ship g Ship Ship Ship g Ship Ship Ship Ship g Ship Ship
Managemen

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t Earned
Evaluation
1. Above table gives an operating Management plan to merely 20 % efficiency that can not be
considered right for a good project Implementation standards.
2. Except SCOPE which operates to some extent, all areas are operating on too low profiles.
3. ATE is working in darkness & is not interested to see light of the day.
4. Future of project is at stake if not controlled immediately.
5. Lost finances cannot be recovered. Nobody knows losses
6. Sponsor or owner has to contemplate either to close business or face high profile losses.
7. Owner is encircled by non professional unqualified managers that do not competently know their
jobs. They do not seek treat for any improvement as well.
8. Overhauling of entire management profiles has to be made to survive in future.
9. All plans are required to be introduced & implemented.
10. Works have been moving just like lay men often perform.
11. People do not know what they are doing & what has to be done.
12. No concrete direction & owners are being befooled.
13. What contracting owner intends to achieve, is not clear. Least bothered.
14. Client or MOH is silent on inefficiency.
15. Consultants are passing time without resorting to strong actions contractually.
Regards
P Eng Suraj Singh

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