Assessing the impact of Public Procurement Procedures on Collection Management in Public University Libraries in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The introduction of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005 affected purchase of various items in public entities, including academic libraries. University libraries are mandated by the parent institution to effectively provide access to quality information and information resources to support learning, research and academic programmes. The Libraries are directed to comply with the guidelines provided by the Commission for University Education (CUE) to ensure that library users are provided with diverse, authoritative, reliable and up-to-date information resources. Today, libraries are faced with myriad of challenges in complying with the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, Commission for University Education guidelines and collection management activity towards provision of information resources towards satisfying user information needs. The study focused on public procurement procedures in Public University libraries in Nairobi County. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act (2005) on collection management in public university libraries and to suggest ways in which the Act can accommodate the unique needs of such libraries. The objectives of the study were to: assess the application of the Act to acquisition of information materials in public university libraries, examine how the Act has affected the collection management, identify the challenges facing public university libraries in procuring information materials, and suggest ways in which the Act can be amended to accommodate the unique needs of public university libraries. The study employed qualitative approach, where the population comprised of university librarians, procurement staff and the Director of the Public Procurement Oversight Authority. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews. Data collected was presented and analysed through the use of qualitative techniques, where necessary, tables and figures were used. The key findings of the study indicated that: librarians were fully aware that they were required to comply and use the Public Procurement and Disposal Act while acquiring and disposing information materials; there were delays in the acquisition of information materials due to the lengthy procurement procedures; key challenges experienced when using the Procurement Act were language and terms used in the Act, lack of proper guidance and insufficient communication from the procurement unit to user departments, failure to involve librarians in the process and stages of procurement. The study concluded that there was need to amend the Public Procurement Act to accommodate the unique needs of public university libraries. Therefore, the study recommends that public university libraries be allowed to use direct procurement from the publishers and printers to acquire information resources. The study further recommends training of user departments on Public Procurement and Disposal Act and provision of user manuals for libraries and information centres