EFFECT OF PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON SERVICE DELIVERY AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Procurement in public universities in Kenya has been recognized as essential in-service delivery since it affects how goods are procured and ensures tenders are awarded at the right time. However, this has not been the case because even though most of the public procurement reforms have been achieved and procurement policies and institutions are in place, the level of quality service delivery by the universities is still low which is seen to being contributed by poor procurement management practices. These poor procurement management practices in the universities has affected the way they assess their needs, carry out the tendering process and evaluate their suppliers. This study therefore sought to determine the effect of procurement planning, tendering process, supplier evaluation, procurement contract management and implementation of Public Procurement Disposal Act on service delivery among public universities in Kenya. This study was anchored by agency theory, resource-based theory and knowledge-based theory. Descriptive research design was used. Primary data was collected using questionnaire. The target population of the study was 31 public universities in Kenya. The study adopted census technique. A total of 31 Head of procurement department were the respondents. A multiple regression model was employed to bring out the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. The hypotheses of the study were tested using t-test while the overall significance of the model was tested using F-test at 5% level of significance. The study established a negative significant effect of procurement planning when the procurement management practices are combined with (regression coefficient of -0.267,p value of 0.026<0.05).Further it was found that supplier evaluation and tendering process had a positive effect on service delivery with a (regression coefficient of 1.048 and 0.206,P-value was 0.000 and 0.038<0.05).Procurement contract management had (regression coefficient of 0.030,P value of 0.743>0.05). The study concluded that procurement planning, supplier evaluation and tendering process had a significant effect service delivery of public universities in Kenya and recommends that firms should do timely procurements, do a thorough market survey on suppliers and request for proposal and quotation. On the other hand, procurement contract management was found to be insignificant therefore it does not affect service delivery. The findings of the study will contribute to theory of procurement and policy making on procurement management practices. This study contributes to procurement discipline by providing a model that captures procurement management practices aspects and measuring their effect on service delivery. The study contributes to the body of existing knowledge by providing an attempt to procurement management practices and measuring their effect on service delivery of public universities. Following the information collected using questionnaires and analyzed, this study will form a data mine for future researchers in this field of procurement in Kenya. Based on the study findings it is recommended that; Companies should encourage implementation of procurement planning for the business needs at an early stage in order to prevent delay. for a more proactive effort from the procurement staff and other management staff on the need for supplier evaluation to minimize incomplete projects and measures should be put in place to ensure that firms adopt better ways of tendering and fair evaluation of bidders to enhance continuity of projects.