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The purpose of this paper is to examine the transaction costs involved in managing procurement contracts in the public sector, particularly at the lower and higher level of local governments from the clients’ perspective.

The paper uses new institutional economics, specifically the transaction cost approach. A multiple case study design was used, in which five local government authorities (LGAs) were selected from the Kigoma and Tanga regions of Tanzania. Interviews with heads of procurement management units, focus groups and secondary sources were used to collect information for lower level LGAs.

Very high information, negotiation and monitoring transaction costs were revealed at the post-contractual stage for higher levels of local government in all cases. Transaction costs were associated with institutional problems, lack of financial resources and attitudes towards accountability, transparency and competition. It was also found that lower levels of local government are faced with very high transaction costs for all procurement stages due to a lack of procurement contract management capacity among ward and village procurement project committees, low levels of support from higher level LGAs, a lack of simple Swahili-standardised documents and guidelines for lower level procurement contract management which reflect current legal issues and the lack of a legal framework for procurement at the lower level of local government. These costs are associated with poor accountability and a lack of competition, transparency and efficiency throughout public procurement chains.

There is no estimate for quantitative approaches, because it is was difficult to measure transaction costs associated with accountability, transparency and efficiency.

The paper contributes knowledge on qualitative levels of transaction costs for procurement contract management for both higher and lower levels of LGAs from the clients’ viewpoint.

The purpose of this study was to identify and assess the regulatory and institutional constraints in managing procurement records in Tanzania’s procuring entities.

This study used a mixed study design. There were explorative case study and questionnaire survey study methods used sequentially. In total, 15 procuring entities were used for exploratory case study, while 200 respondents were administered with questionnaires. A 75 per cent response rate was realised.

Results indicated that management and care of procurement records is constrained by regulatory and institutional constraints. The identified and assessed constraints were inter alia: incapacity of institutional actors, inadequate regulatory and institutional arrangements, inadequacy of storage space, equipment and facilities and insufficiency of security and safety measures.

This research focussed on the procuring entities found in Dar es Salaam, which accounts for 40.72 per cent of the total procuring entities in Tanzania. Based on this, the generalisation of research findings can be sought in that particular context.

Findings imply that procurement records management and care is highly influenced by the constraining factors that hinder efficient records keeping in most procuring entities in Tanzania.

Majority of procurement management units and user departments’ staff were found to possess inadequate knowledge, skills and competences in management and care of procurement records. The procuring entities should ensure that procurement staffs are trained in records and archives management practices.

This study contributes towards adding knowledge to the existing body of knowledge on the procurement records and archives management systems.