The Ingenieur Vol 59 July-Sept 2014 The Ingenieur Vo. 59, July-Sept 2014 | Page 24

INGENIEUR

The Guideline for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)
Specifications and Schedule of Prices is a reference to
create a basis against which OSH items are specified at
the pre-contract stage. This will enable the OSH activities
to be embedded and monitored during the execution or
post-contract period.

T

he Malaysian construction industry has
become the focal point of interest as more
tragic incidents occurred at construction
sites have been reported and the figures are
alarming. These incidents may pose a substantial
risk to the surrounding environment with highly
populated housing or public areas. Most cases,
related to construction accidents, are considered
to be the contractor’s responsibility. In fact,
evidence shows that many factors associated with
construction accidents can be traced back to the
responsibility of the designer and client. However,
it is difficult to gather evidence in justifying the
project participants’ role.
One validated accident theory (Suraji et
al., 2001) shows that complexity of inter linkage
factors from project inception to construction
leads to accidents. It is not easy to draw them
under a dynamic system of procurement process.
The Construction Research Institute of Malaysia
(CREAM) and Construction Industry Development
Board (CIDB) Malaysia conducted a Workshop
on “Aligning R&D Themes and Titles to the
Requirement of Construction Industry” in year
2007. The recommended Occupational Safety and
Health (OSH) topics considered are the actual cost
of OSH practices in the entire construction value
chain. The OSH specifications and costing will be
developed to match the complexity of accident
causation under an evidential analytical approach.
ISSUES OF OSH IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
Construction projects in Malaysia are one of
the accident prone areas. Accident causation
has been always seen particularly at site level
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only. No attempts have been made to look back
at any deficient aspects across procurement
process leading to accident causation resulting
in incomplete accident causation evidence. This
leads to failure to adopt better accident prevention
strategies. There is a need to provide a proper
evidential analysis for any accident taking place
on site and then trace it back throughout the
procurement process. This may help anyone
involved in procurement to take action to eliminate,
avoid or reduce potential deficiencies leading to
increased risk of accidents.
As stated above, there is a complexity of inter
linkage factors starting from project inception to
construction stage that leads to accidents. In fact,
evidence has shown that many factors associated
with construction accidents can be traced back
to the designers’ responsibility (architect or
engineers) as well as the client’s responsibility.
One solution that can improve the OSH
effectiveness