When you’re building a property, especially if you can’t always be on-site, it’s easy for your construction site manager or workers to take advantage of you without you even realizing it.
Whether it’s inflating material costs, pocketing extra cash from labor, or even sneaking materials off-site, these small tricks can add up to significant losses for you.
Below are three subtle ways your construction site manager or workers can exploit you, and practical steps to avoid being swindled.
1. Material Purchase:
If a building material (e.g., iron rod) costs ₦10,700 + ₦200 for transportation, but your construction site manager claims to have bought it for ₦12,000, that’s ₦1,100 lost per rod.
Thus, If the project requires 200 lengths of rod, that will sum up to a total loss of ₦220,000.
If he claimed he bought it for ₦15,000 per length, that will sum up to ₦820,000 loss on iron rods alone.
To avoid that (if you do not live around there, especially for those in the diaspora), send a neutral person (preferably someone who is unaware of your project, or someone who neither knows the project location or manager), to help price the materials from 4 – 5 random sellers before making your buying decision.
This way, you’re sure you’re getting fair pricing, and not being overcharged by your construction site manager.
2. Material Theft:
Material theft can happen in two ways. First, by claiming to buy more than they actually did. For instance, your construction site manager might say he purchased 100 bags of cement, when in fact, he only bought 90.
To avoid this tell them to make a video of them counting the materials when they arrived on-site and send the video to you for confirmation, ensuring you get what you pay for.
The second form of theft involves stealing materials already at the site.
A good solution here is to install a CCTV camera at the store entrance so you can monitor the materials being taken out. Additionally, ask them to make a video while counting the materials they need for each day’s job.
Use it to confirm with the quantity they truly need for the day or the quantity they claimed they took.
Then use the figure shown in their video to crosscheck the one shown on the camera (most especially when you have some doubts).
3. Labour Costs
This is the diciest of them all, especially with construction site management. A fraudulent construction site manager can connive with labour to inflate their fees, so he can keep the difference for himself.
This is dicey because, even though there are standard daily charges for some crafts, there is no standard contract charge (e.g. how much a bricklayer would charge for the entire fence – this will vary from person to person).
And unfortunately, some of your labour charge will be on contract bases.
The easiest way to go about it is to try get an idea of how much you should pay per square meter of work and compare this with the total square meters he would be working on at the site.
Ensure you are paying the equivalent or less (not more).
Important Note
If you send a worker, such as a tiler, to buy materials and it takes a significant amount of time (e.g., 4–5 hours), don’t just pay for the materials and transportation. Pay them a full day’s wage, as though they were doing their regular job.
You can’t send a full Fletch adult, especially a family man, on an errand and forget that he needs to eat on the way and he has a family to feed when he returns.
Ignoring this is one reason even a trustworthy person might compromise and mess up your money when hunger strikes.
How Site Managers Earn Extra Legitimately
A construction site manager can legitimately earn extra income through discounts.
Example: if the market price of iron rod + transportation to site is ₦10,900, the construction site manager can persuade the seller to give him a discount based on bulk buying, personal relationships, or being a repeat customer.
Some sellers will give a discount of ₦100 per length totaling ₦20,000 for 200 lengths/rod
And if the seller gives a discount of 200 per length/rod, that will be a total of ₦40,000 from that purchase.
Additionally, construction site managers may receive tips from laborers for giving them contracts, though this is rare.
Conclusion
In construction site management, it’s easy to fall victim to smart moves from site managers and workers if you’re not careful. By taking the right steps, like crosschecking material prices, keeping an eye on the materials on-site, and having a good understanding of labor costs, you can avoid being exploited.
At the end of the day, na your money dey go, so you need to protect it. Stay smart, stay vigilant, and ensure your construction site manager isn’t taking advantage of your project.
Donald Karo
