Procurement Planning and Service Delivery of Procurement Function in UasinGishu County Government, Kenya: The Role of Procurement Professionals

Abstract

Procurement has become an integral part of organizational performance and it is drawing increased attention from top to lower management levels. Despite shrinking budgets, procurement professionals are responsible for spending a huge proportion of companies’ revenue or of the national budget. Lack of professionalism leads to corruption which ultimately impedes compliance of procurement rules and regulations in procuring entities and adversely affects service delivery. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to assess the impact of professionalism on service delivery of procurement function in UasinGishu County Government, Kenya. Specifically, the study determined the impact of procurement planning on service delivery of procurement function in UasinGishu County Government, Kenya. The study adopted Institutional Theory. Explanatory survey research design was employed. The target population for the study was UasinGishu County Government employees. It has a workforce of about 2599. The accessible population for this study was 115 employees drawn from procurement department. The study used census survey to collect complete information from all participants in the accessible population. The researcher used semi structured questionnaire as the main tool of data collection. The researcher piloted the instruments by distributing 12 questionnaires to respondents in Baringo County Government which is not part of the area sampled in order to ascertain reliability of the research instruments. This study used content validity and used Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient to test the reliability of the instruments. The data was collected using questionnaires. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 and Microsoft version of Excel. The coded data was entered into SPSS program to generate measures of central tendency (mode and mean) and measures of dispersion such as percentages and ranks. For inferential statistics, the study used multiple linear regressions to show how the independent variables and dependent variable relate. The data analysis was presented in form of tables. The study results found out that procurement planning had a positive and significant influence on service delivery (β1=0.346, p<0.05). The study concluded that the service delivery of UasinGishu County Government is affected positively by procurement planning and therefore recommended that employment of professionally trained and qualified procurement staff should be emphasized and implemented. As a procurement professional body in the country, Kenya Institute of Supplies Management (KISM), should focus more on enforcement of the requirement for professional registration and adherence to the professional code of ethics and conduct among procurement practitioners in the country.