Public Procurement Practices and Performance of Selected Constituency Development Fund Projects in Kenya

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 xxii 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