Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to establish the public procurement practices on
performance of constituency development funds projects in Kenya. Procurement
professionals have always walked on a tight rope in order to implement objectives and
goals. Their ability to accomplish these procurement objectives and policies indicate that
procurement officials are influenced by political, legal- internal and external factors. The
tendering process can be a minefield of potential litigation without proper procedures
and regulations, where contractors complain of the lack of a fair and consisted approach
to tendering and accusation of favoritism and corruption. Public procurement is a major
development mechanism, the potential which has not been fully designed in pursuit of
value for money and efficiency in the use of public funds. The purpose is to support the
attainment of high economic growth and ensure delivery of service. The reform strategy
for economic development will not be achieved without the participation of community
in transparency and accountability in delivery of non-core public service. The study used
a descriptive research design. The target population was 2000 officers drawn from 96
CDF projects in Nairobi County, Kiambu County, Kisumu County, Bomet County, Kisii
County and Bungoma County respectively. The study used exploratory, descriptive and
quantitative designs and stratified random sampling procedure to select a sample size of
96 respondents. Questionnaires were used for collecting data which was processed and
analyzed by use of SPSS. The data analyzed included descriptive and inferential
statistics. Data was presented by using tables and figures. The findings of the study
concluded that most of the CDF projects management had a capacity building
programme, good supplier relationships, good procurement ethics, but didn’t have a well
established information communication technology system. The study also concluded
that government policy influenced the relationship between public procurement practices
and the performance of most of the CDF projects negatively. Following the study
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results, the study recommended that the stakeholders and policy makers should employ
better capacity building strategies. The CDF project management committees should
emphasis on supplier relationships so as to ensure continuous performance of the CDF
projects. Specifically, the management should ensure that there exist good supplier
identification, assessment and evaluation strategies. This study recommends that the
CDF management committees should endeavor to maintain high levels of integrity in
procurement ethics. The CDF management committees should prioritize on having
articulated procurement code of ethics, quality statement and services delivery
statement, so as to ensure continuous performance of CDF projects. The study
recommended that the CDF management committees should invest on ICT. Specifically,
they can consider having E- commerce, E-government and E-procurement systems.
Therefore, the study recommends that the government of Kenya should formulate
policies that ensure proper governance of CDF projects
