Public Procurement Principles and the Performance of County Governments in Kenya

Abstract

Organizations nowadays are required to observe and adhere to public procurement principles if they are to achieve good performance. An audit report for the financial year 2014/2015 revealed that most county governments have unsupported expenditure on purchasing assets amounting to about Ksh 2 billion, failing to publish awarded tender contracts and submitting them to the Public Procurement Regulatory authority. Equally, the report established non-compliance with the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015 on assets acquisitions. In addition, the report showed most counties unbudgeted for expenses and irregular procurement of projects, leading to the stall of projects across the counties. Thus, the rationale of this research study was to investigate the influence of public procurement principles on the performance of devolved county governments in Kenya. This study applied a cross-sectional survey design with a target population of ten counties ranked top ten in corruption malpractices by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in 2018. County governments were stratified using region, and simple random sampling was used to pick a sample size of 229 respondents drawn from finance/audit and procurement/supply chain departments. The data was collected using a closed, open-ended questionnaire supplemented by secondary data. The data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The analyzed data was presented in tables, charts and graphs. The relationship between independent and dependent variables was established using the Pearson correlation and regression model. The study established that county governments split tenders to avoid appropriate procurement processes. The study also established that the county governments adopted procurement ethics to ensure good quality of goods and services are procured as per specifications. On value for money, the study found out that the county governments in Kenya had fairly adopted the public procurement and asset disposal act of 2015 by discouraging fake competition and using the aggregation method appropriately in order to take advantage of economies of scale. Equally, regarding competitive tendering, the study noted that competitive tendering helped the county governments to instill trust with the public and provided them with a fair chance to participate in the tendering process, enhancing accountability and building public confidence in a manner in which tenders are awarded. Concerning transparency, the study established that county governments had promoted transparency by keeping appropriate procurement records, publication of contracts awarded and constant communication between procuring entity and the bidders. Further, the study noted that top management support significantly moderates the relationship between public procurement principles and the performance of county governments in Kenya. Thus the study recommended that top management support is required in the county governments to coordinate public procurement principles and increase the performance of county governments. The study's major limitation was that the targeted population was drawn from ten county governments and ranked top ten in National Ethics and Corruption survey report in March 2018. Future studies should examine the validity of the findings in all forty-seven county governments.