Antecedents of Procurement Regulatory Compliance Level in Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Public procurement has always been a big part of the developing countries economy accounting for 30-60% of their GDPs. The general issue in this thesis is that in spite of the way that there has been changes in activity of the general population acquirement framework in Kenya since mid1990s, the government still loss billions of cash through acquisition abnormalities with the Ministry of Education driving by 45% of the announced cases in 2017/2018 and 35% in 2015/2016. PPOA is in charge of guaranteeing that the acquisition systems built up under the Act are consented with but very little evidence is available to support this compliance to these regulations. Procurement departments in universities are often involved in the procurement of goods and services such as purchase of photocopiers, computers, stationary, uniforms and university buses among others. This study considered the antecedents of procurement regulatory compliance level in public universities in Kenya namely, procurement expertise, Information and communication technology, procurement ethical standards and top management support. The dependent variable was procurement regulatory compliance level in public universities in Kenya while the moderating variable was organizational culture. A pilot study was done at Jomo KenyattaUniversity embracing a 10% of the objective populace. The study applied the census sampling method to choose the sample size of 31 state funded universities and 333 respondents. The research was informed by the following theories, Skills theory, Convergence theory, Ethical climate theory, Principal –agent theory, bureaucracy theory and Legitimacy theory. The study used Ex-post facto design, the research design was chosen because the study aimed at investigating the causal relationship on variables, which cannot be controlled by the researcher. Primary data was collectedthrough the use of questionnaires issued to the procurement staffs in the sampled universities. Procurement expertise, information and communication technology, top management support andorganizational culture were found to be satisfactory significant in contribution as a factor to procurement regulatory compliance level. The study found that there was an insignificant influence of procurement ethical standards to the procurement regulatory compliance level. The study concluded that procurement expertise prompts consistency and influence making the right and strategic purchasing decision. Overreliance on older and more labor-intensive technologies in ICThave an adverse effect on employees’ morale. Inspiration and awards to staff can be utilized as a system to battle the individual interest that emerge in inclination to satisfy their obligations and tasks. The executives goes about as the system to the usefulness of the obtainment division and exercises thereof. Inadequate checking and evaluation of the working in an association is associated with the non-participation to a controllable circumstance. Modern technology inICT regarding procurement such as e-procurement should be implemented across the procurementdepartments. The study recommended that e-procurement should be used in the tendering processand customization of transactions. The universities should increase the number of ICT specialistsin procurement field. Deficiency of ICT apparatuses and programming in acquirement ought to be eliminated. Disciplinary advances should be taken on staff with improper for practices in work to maintain moral practice. Top xxv administration rather should deal with inspiring the staff separately for excellent execution. There ought to be opportunity of staff to release their obligations as allocated to them by the top administration.