FACTORS INFLUENCING PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE IN THE KENYAN PUBLIC SECTOR: CASE STUDY OF THE STATE LAW OFFICE

Public procurement is crucial to government service delivery. For decades procurement performance has been attracting great attention from practitioners, academicians and researchers due to poor levels of performance. Despite Government efforts for improvement, it is still marred by shoddy works, poor quality goods and services. Stakeholders complain about poor service delivery. Benefits deriving from improved procurement performance at State Law Office (SLO) are dependent on systems and staff. The general objective of the study was to assess factors influencing procurement performance in Kenyan public sector with specific focus on the SLO. It sought to assess the extent to which records management systems, procurement procedures, information communications technology and staff qualifications influence procurement performance. Descriptive design was used in executing the study. Target population was the 600 SLO staff comprising of 7 departments. Sample size of 60 respondents, 10% of target population, was drawn using stratified sampling method. Primary and secondary sources of data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and observation. Both descriptive and inferential data analysis methods including frequencies, percentages, factor analysis and regression were used in STATA. Data was presented using graphs and figures. Based on the analyses of information presented above, the following findings were noted: Demographic indicators show that majority of the study participants are qualified and have attained education levels sufficient to influence favourably their comprehension of antecedents to effective management of the procurement function. Further findings on years of experience indicate that officers participating in the procurement function in the SLO have long work experience. The results indicate that the SLO is performing on the negative in all the five determinants of public procurement performance studied as they all recorded negative mean scores. Overall records management is most significant driver in procurement performance followed by procurement procedures, procurement staff qualifications and ICT in that order. It is recommended that reforms in the Department be accelerated with a view of streaming procurement processes as well as automating activities and back office operations.

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