Finland: Contracted Property and Facilities Services in the Finnish Municipalities

Authors

• Kari I. Leväinen

Abstract

Finland is divided into municipalities that form the local self-government. The basic duty of the municipalities is to provide the well-being and welfare to its inhabitants. The Finnish municipalities are providing services both in-house and from private sources. Technical services can be developed by evolving the work of own organization, in cooperation with other municipalities, or by contracting out. The client-producer model is increasing in the in-house production. The most contracted-out tasks are services of special equipments and elevators, waste management and maintenance of electrical systems, and the less contracted-out are cleaning and maintenance of outdoor areas. The reasons for outsourcing property and facilities services are insufficiencies in the own resources, lack of special know-how, lower price, and the fashion trend of privatising in the public sector. The main obstacles for using contracted services are the running resources in the contracting organisation, the undeveloped service market in the area, the fear that total outsourcing may give the monopoly to the service provider, etc.