The Procurement Practices For Property Management Services By Public Institutions: The Case Of Two Public Institution In Kenya

Real Estate is an important resource in the delivery of public services and needs to be well managed. To enhance the quality of service provided or to enable these institutions concentrate on their core mandate, they have recently looked to the private sector to provide certain management functions. This is in the hope of delivering better quality service and reducing costs. The paper will capture the African context through an exploratory study Outsourcing strategies have been adapted by many public institutions in Kenya. The main reasons for such decisions have been stated as the poor quality of services provided by in house staff and the high cost of such a service. The advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing has been debated in many scholarly journals. Public procurement is regulated by legislation, in Kenya by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015 and internationally by the United Nations Commission on International Trade UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement. This is because public procurement must be transacted with other considerations in mind, other than the economy. These include accountability, non- discrimination and respect for international obligations. The paper is exploratory and looked at best practices that exist in chosen public institutions that outsource several of their real estate services. It has been identified that public institutions procurement process is governed by a legal framework and the study will find out if the institutions adhere to this legal framework, in an effort to give value to their consumers and the suppliers.