Procurement Practices and Level of Implementation of Public Procurement Regulations in the Devolved Systems of Government in Kenya

Abstract

Public procurement in most devolved system of governments in Kenya have been criticized and are under investigation for procurement malpractices, corruption cases, ghost projects and massive wastage of public resources due to non-compliance in the procurement processes. Report revealed an average score for all the county executives was 39.7% non-compliant of Procurement procedures and a high-risk level of 60.3%, also the aggregate compliance and implementation score of all the County Assemblies was 46.6% while the risk level was 53.4%. This shows that the higher the risk score, the higher the possibility of a procuring entity failing to obtain value for money expended through procurement. Complaints were received from suppliers and the public against County government PEs on flaws in tender evaluation and specifications, on Supplier’s delayed payments, lack of notification of awards, errors in tender notices and alleged corrupt practices during procurement. Most Procuring entities at the County governments have major challenges of failure in updating store records, security of store, failure to conduct regular stock taking, maintenance of Assets Registers that were not updated which was considered non-compliance in implementing inventory controls and management. Therefore, it was necessary to consider service delivery in Counties through procurement practices and its implementation level. The study targeted to generate information that would create an understanding of the procurement practices and implementation level in Counties in Kenya. The population targeted was 47 devolved system of governments in Kenya assessing the influence of procurement staff competency, supplier relationship management, inventory management and procurement audit practices and implementation level of Procurement in Counties. Theory of Constraints, Policeman theory, Compliance performance reform cycle model, the four-pillar model, Institutional theory and competences models’ theory were found to be relevant in the study. The study adopted census because of the small size of the population and a structured questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The study undertook a pilot test on the instrument’s reliability and validity in the three counties; Nyamira, Kisii, Homa-Bay Counties where nine (9) respondents were engaged in the pilot study. The study applied descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis. The key informers from the 44 Counties were engaged in the survey, who positively responded hence achieving 100% response rate. Presentation of data was in form of tables as deemed appropriate. The study finding indicates that all the procurement practices have a positive significance effect on the implementation of Procurement in Counties. The finding showed a coefficient of the determination R value of 0.598(59.8%) without the moderator and 0.816(81.6%) with moderator, signifying that the IV contributed 81.6% on the implementation of procurement in Counties with a moderator. In addition, the moderator was found to be significant for both the IV and DV as there was a positive change in beta values on the variables. The findings demonstrates that in every unit change in the variables, there is a positive increase in the value of implementation of PP. It was therefore, concluded from the study that the County procurement officers pay maximum attention to procurement practices and M & E for they both have a positive effect on implementation of procurement in Counties.