The Challenges of Status Reporting during the Construction of Capital Projects in South African State-Owned Companies

There are prominent parastatals that play a critical role in the everyday life of most South Africans, through freight logistics and electricity provision. Their project portfolios are worth hundreds of billions of Rands. Considering the amount of taxpayers’ money invested by SOCs into projects each year there is a pressing need to ensure that challenges facing status reporting during the construction of capital projects are addressed. Capital infrastructure investments will go a long way in yielding fruits through achieving the desired developmental goals, stimulating job creation and boosting the country’s economy, which is particularly needed considering the persistent, volatile economic climate which is stunting job creation and hampering GDP growth. However, within these SOCs, billions of taxpayers’ Rands are invested into hundreds of capital projects that are frequently delayed (Yelland, 2016; Groenewald, 2017). A project status report summarises the position or condition of a particular project during a stated period of time. Zulch (2014) has shown the importance of stakeholder communication in realising the project deliverables. This paper deliberates the challenges of status reporting faced by SOCs during capital project construction.