Inventory Audit and Supply Management: An Evidence of Inventory Control Practices.

Abstract

Supply management is increasingly becoming a focus in this 21st century. For an organisation to compete and successfully operate in the current risky supply management atmosphere, it must apply control measures that are effective within its internal supply management. The supply management environment today is characterised by many risk factors that may have a negative impact on the inventory control operations of an enterprise. However, there is an outcry in the universities procurement sector for inadequate stock control. The paper aims to establish the relationship between inventory audit and supply management in public and private universities in Nakuru County. The study was guided by stock diffusion. The study adopted a correlation research design. The target population of this study was 115 employees drawn from the procurement department from Egerton and Kabarak University since their headquarters are found in Nakuru County. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents of the study from the two Universities. Taro Yamane’s formula was used to obtain a sample size of 89 respondents. The data were analysed using both quantitative and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that inventory audits were efficiently done. This was improved by ensuring accuracy in recording. The universities also ensure that costs are well controlled to reduce waste and mismanagement of resources in the universities. The inventory audit was also done periodically to ensure all university property and resources were secured. Hence, there existed a significant relationship between inventory audit and supply management (R = 0.836, P<0.05). The study concluded that inventory auditing had a significant influence on supply management. The study recommended that the universities had room for the elimination of shortages, losses and wastage through periodic inventory audits. The universities should also adopt an electronic inventory management system that can make tracking easy.