The principles and practice of facilities maintenance in Botswana

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the current practice of facilities management (FM) in Botswana, particularly as it relates to building maintenance. Design/methodology/approach – Both qualitative and quantitative research methods (observations made from visual inspection of buildings and questionnaires) were used to obtain data in order to meet the objective of the study. A survey involving a self‐administered questionnaire to facility managers was used. Findings – The study revealed that there was generally a lack of information on facilities managed due to a number of factors. The study also found that maintenance expenditure was not in accordance with recommended best practice ratios, that there was a lack of knowledge on the different types of maintenance and that the focus was mostly on emergency and day‐to‐day maintenance. Top management in some organisations also seemed to lack an understanding of the importance of FM, while maintenance departments suffered from under funding and budget cuts. Originality/value – From the key findings, recommendations are made in this paper to improve the practice of FM in Botswana.