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