Dissertation for Master of Science in Facilities Management

PROCUREMENT OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT SERVICES IN

MALAWI’S PUBLIC SECTOR
Investigating a procurement route for the delivery of FM services that is suited
to the operating environment of government departments in Malawi

Lusayo Timothy Mwabutwa

November 2014

ABSTRACT

Facilities Management is a fairly new concept in Malawi especially among government

departments. It is a concept that is slowly growing in popularity within the public sector.
Government departments in Malawi are at liberty to place contracts with FM contractors for
the provision of various services such as cleaning, landscaping, security, building
maintenance and other related FM services.

The FM market itself is slowly developing and is offering a number of options for the public
sector. The market comprise of suppliers of single services only and suppliers of multiple
services. These suppliers can be procured and managed by an in-House team, or through
Managing Agents, or through Managing Contractors or through Total FM Contractors. The
challenge posed to procuring entities at this point in time is to make a choice among these
procurement routes.

At this stage in the development of the FM industry in Malawi it is not yet quite clear which
procurement route is the most appropriate for government departments to realize maximum
benefits. It is for the purpose of establishing a procurement route for FM services that is
suited to the current operating environment of government departments that this research
was undertaken.

This research project was rolled out with a statement that hypothesized that “the managing
contractor procurement route is more suited to the current operating environment of
government departments in Malawi than any other route”. In order to test this hypothesis a
number of preliminary objectives were formulated and had to be dealt with first vis-à-vis
identification of the available procurement routes for FM services in Malawi, identification of
factors influencing the decision of the route to be taken, appraising the relative strength of
the factors in influencing the decision, the appraisal of appropriate routes to be undertaken
when each of the deciding factors is considered alone, and the appraisal of procurement
routes when multiple factors are considered at once.

Research participants comprised of Procurement Managers, Facilities Managers, and FM

contractors of government departments. The research population was made up of twenty
professionals selected through non-probability sampling methods. Purposive sampling was
used to come up with the research sample due to the specialist nature of the research
subject.

With the aid of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) the research tested the initial
hypothesis and concluded with a completely different outcome. It is the finding of this
research that direct contracting with single service providers is a procurement route that is
most suited to the current operating environment of government departments in Malawi.