Claim in general term is defined as a demand or request for some thing, which one has right tornhave. In the context of this thesis claim means a demand by a contractor for extension of timernor for an extra payment of an item or items of work carried out by him on behave of employerrnfor which a readily identifiable amount can not be ascertained under the term of contract. Thernright of entitlement for a contractor to his intention depends on the provision of condition ofrncontract on which the contracting parties depend for their agreement. These conditions couldrnbe FIDIC, BaTCoDA, ICE or others. The conditions of contract provide specific clauses forrnmaking and settlement of claims for extra cost and for grant of extension of time.rnIn Ethiopian construction industry, claims are normally inevitable because of the traditionalrnproject procurement system widely practiced in the country. Moreover, majority of localrnconstruction organizations manage their construction projects by employing engineers whornhave little or no training on construction project management. This results in improper claimrnadministration. In addition to the complexity of projects being undertaken, these days, therntype of project procurement system and improper claim administration raises more problems.rnFor instance, among 15 completed projects studied during the thesis work, project delay up torn500 % of its contractual time and cost increase of greater than 80 % of its contractual sumrnwere encountered. The main causes for these problems are thought to be the improper projectrnmanagement and claim administration.rnTherefore, the research is aimed to describe the general nature of claims and to identify therntype of claims widely raised by local contractors.rnIn addition the thesis is expected to create awareness with the major construction parties i.e.rncontractors, owners and consultants about the level and significance of claims in Ethiopianrnconstruction industry. Even though, there are many bases on which claims may be raisedrnlegally, claims that are based on contractual provisions are emphasized in this research work.rnviiirnContractual claims in the industry can be raised due to variations, breach of contract fromrncontractor(s) or employer(s) side, delay/disruption and third party.rnThe thesis is mainly devoted to identify the main causes of claims in Ethiopian constructionrnindustry, among the aforesaid types of claims. For this purpose different data collectionrntechniques like constructive interviewing and questionnaires were designed and utilized.rnConclusions and recommendations are forwarded based upon statistical analysis of datarncollected during the study period.rnFor the sake of comparisons of the experience of local contractors and foreign (international)rncontractors in processing claims, case studies were conducted.rnThe cases are: Lalibela to Sekota rural road project undertaken by local contractor called SURrnconstruction Share Company, Sodao to Chida access road project undertaken by internationalrn(foreign) contractor called Salini construttori S.P.A and the 500 special housing projectrnundertaken by international (foreign) contractor called C.M.C-di- Ravenna. The detailrnanalyses of the case studies along with copies of questionnaires are annexed in the appendixrnof the thesis.