Maintenance of Government Bungalows in Birim Central Municipality: Challenges

ABSTRACT

The study examined existing maintenance policy for government bungalows, the current condition of the government bungalows; identify the challenges confronting maintenance departments of public institutions and make recommendations for effective maintenance policy and innovations that would curtail the building maintenance problems in public institutions in Birim Central Municipality. The field investigations focused on government bungalows of GHS nurses quarters, GPS, and Akroso SHS. Three different housing types were defined for data collection and discussion including: bungalows, tenement (flats) and single unit houses. Through the application of multistage cluster sampling and random sampling techniques, 65 buildings were covered in the survey. The research revealed that on the whole, 93.3 percent of all government bungalows of public institutions surveyed have problems with maintenance. The age of the buildings, Lack of maintenance culture, Inadequate funds and high maintenance cost, Pressure on building facilities by large number of users and Poor construction work and maintenance work done by maintenance personnel of the institution were identified as causes of maintenance problems. Stakeholders in the housing sector also added to the problem as a result of lack of preventive maintenance plan, low capacity of maintenance personnel in terms of staffing and training, absence of an effective national maintenance policy, apathy and lack of patriotism on the part of some public employees occupying government bungalows. Recommendations made include the need for public institutions to embrace preventive maintenance practices, periodic inspections of buildings‘ conditions, adequately staffed maintenance departments, effective national policy on maintenance to protect buildings, establishment of a maintenance awards scheme and maintenance fund.