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 sector
