Examination of Facility Management Practice in Obudu Mountain Resort, Cross River State (Published)
Facility management is the practice that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality comfort, safety and efficiency of the built environment by integrating people, places, process and technology with the purpose of improving the quality of life of the people and the productivity of the core business. The study examined facility management practice in Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River State with aim of determining the management efficiency of the Resort. The study adopted the survey research design and data collection was through structured questionnaire administered on the staff of the Resort, Cross River State Tourism Bureau and visitors to the resort. A total of 202 copies of questionnaire out of 300 copies administered were retrieved and valid for data analysis. The data were analyzed using a descriptive statistics, Analysis of variance (ANOVA), multiple linear regression and t-test statistics in testing the three hypotheses formulated for the study. The first finding shows that the p-value (.708) associated with the computed F-value (.347) are greater than .05. This shows that there is no relationship between methods of facility management efficiency meaning that the methods facility management adopted does not determine the facility management efficiency of the resort. The second finding indicates that facility management efficiency is not significantly and collectively influenced by factors such as government continuity, funding, location, poor management of the facility, lack of skilled professionals, environmental effects, inflation and government policy. The third finding indicates that there is no significant difference in the resort now compared to when it was newly built. The study recommends that government should not be involved in the running of the resort to increase productivity, revenue generation, to privatize the resort for better management, out-sourced the management of the resort for effective facility management of the resort.
Keywords: Facility, In-house, Management, Obudu, Out-source, Resort
Assessment of Servqual Approach in The Management of Leasehold Properties of N.R.C in South-West, Nigeria (Published)
A major gap exists between users (occupants’) expectations on the real estate services promised and the actual real estate services that is provided to the occupiers. Examining the impact this gap has on the perception of users (occupants) of the real estate services cannot be over-emphasized. It is observed that most staff of public real estate organization do not understand the content of service quality (SERVQUAL). This research examined SERVQUAL approach in the management of leasehold properties of Nigeria Railway Corporation (N.R.C) by Railway Property Management Company Limited (R.P.M.C.L) in South-West, Nigeria. The study adopts stratified random sampling technique that accommodates every segment of the population. Data for the study were obtained from the users of leasehold properties of Nigerian Railway Corporation in the study area through the use of structured questionnaire, and were analyzed using tables, percentage and descriptive summary. The study revealed the absence of e-channel for communication between users (occupants) of N.R.C leasehold properties and management of R.P.M.C.L in the study area, no service quality office and inadequate RPMCL offices in the study area. The study recommends creation of e-communication channels in the study area, increase in skilled man-power, creation of more offices and equipping staff of Railway Property Management Company Limited with the knowledge of service quality (SERVQUAL) instrument.
Keywords: Management, Quality, R.P.M.C.L and N.R.C., SERVQUAL, Service
PARTICIPATION OF INDIGENOUS CONTRACTORS IN NIGERIAN PUBLIC SECTOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS AND THEIR CHALLENGES IN MANAGING WORKING CAPITAL (Published)
Over the years, indigenous contractors in Nigeria have recorded a low level of participation and have often been sidelined in large scale construction activities. This has been attributed to, amongst a number of factors, mismanagement of funds and working capital which makes them prone to bankruptcy, with poor project execution and abandonment the likely outcome. The paper thus focused on studying the extent of participation of indigenous contractors in Nigerian construction projects, identifying and examining the most severe factors that hinder effective and efficient working capital management and affect the level or amount of working capital requirement of indigenous contractors. Literature studies, field survey and oral interviews were carried out to determine the major challenges faced by contractors in managing working capital and the extent of indigenous participation in public projects respectively, while a questionnaires were distributed to a selected sample of contractors in Imo state to obtain the severity weight of each factor. Findings revealed that evidently, the common challenges facing Nigerian indigenous contractors in Nigeria in the area of working capital management are low awareness of the need for working capital management, one-man business setbacks, under-capitalization, poor funding and cash flow problems, high cost of construction finance, economic recession, reckless spending and diversion of funds, poor project planning and control. Factors affecting the level of working capital requirements comprises: inflation, delays in interim payments, taxation at source and deduction of retention funds. Indigenous contractors also recorded a low level of participation on major public contracts. Results of the severity ranking exercise indicated that the problems of the one-man business set up is the most severe of the factors hindering proper working capital management, while deduction of retention fund and inflation respectively, ranked highest in factors affecting the level or amount of the contractors’ working capital requirement. It was thus recommended that in order to enable indigenous contractors realize construction projects within pre-planned cost, time and quality, reduce the incidences of project abandonment and improve their overall participation, there is need for concerted efforts on the part of the contractors to take appropriate steps in maximizing their awareness on the gains of proper working management and minimize incidences that will lead to cost escalation of his working capital requirement and on the part of the Government, a focused, political will to devise policies and create the enabling environment for improving indigenous content in the construction industry
Keywords: Challenges, Indigenous Contractors, Management, Nigeria, Participation, Working capital.