Assessment of Force Account Approach in Maintenance and Construction of Quality Building in Public Sectors in Tanzania:

Abstract

The construction and maintenance of public building plays an important role in facilitating the development of public sectors. However, to achieve this objective the government has been recommending force account approach in construction and maintenance of building in public sectors. This approach seems to have positive outcomes even though many study have found that force account have negative effects in construction and maintenance of building in public sectors in Tanzania. Therefore, this study intended to determine the effect of force account approach in construction and maintenance of building in public sectors in Meru District Council in Tanzania. The study focused on cost overruns, lack of incentives for contractors, and low facilities qualities. The study adopted a case study design to collect data and the formula of Tabachnick and Fidell was used to select 74 respondents from the Target population of 153. The population comprised the staff of Meru District Council drawn from all departments. Nevertheless, the study will collected both qualitative and quantitative data using questionnaires and interview guide. The quantitative data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 whereas thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics such as measures of central tendency and measures of spread was used to summarize and describe data in a meaningful way. The study found that the overall Mean of Contractor’s incentives were rated at 3 indicating that contractor’s incentives affect maintenance and construction of quality building in public sectors. The study found that the overall effect of cost overruns is 3 indicating that somehow cost overruns affect maintenance and construction of building in public sectors. The study found that the overall mean of building materials scored the mean of 3 indicating building materials affect maintenance and construction of building in public sectors.