Procurement management and service delivery in Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between public procurement management and service delivery in Uganda with a focus on the LGs: A case study of Wakiso District LG. The objectives of the study; to establish the relationship between Procurement Planning and Service Delivery in Uganda, to examine the relationship between Supplier Selection and Service Delivery in Local Governments of Uganda and to assess the relationship between contract administration in Public Procurement management and Service Delivery in Local Governments of Ugand; the study was based on the Agency theory The study adopted a case study design focused on testing the relationship between public procurement management and service delivery in Uganda which used the quantitative and qualitative method of the study; questionnaires was the main data collection tool used with the help of interview guides, research was analyzed using tables and SPSS, correlation was used to find the relationship between the two variables and regression analysis was used to find the predictive qualities of the dependent variable (service delivery) in relation to the independent variable (public procurement management). Purposive sampling and systematic random sampling techniques were used to select a representative sample from a target population of 89 employees with a sample size of 73 respondents, the response rate is 95.9%. The findings revealed that public procurement management in the dimensions of procurement planning, supplier selection and contract administration have a positive and significant relationship with service delivery in LGs with Pearson’s correlation r=0.885; P≤ 0.01 for procurement planning, r=0.729; P≤ 0.01 for supplier selection and r=0.791; P≤ 0.01 for contract administration. This implies that a change in any of these dimensions leads to a significant change in service delivery in LGs hence they should be taken serious by the LGs to ensure service delivery. In developing countries, public procurement is increasingly recognized as essential in service delivery and it accounts for huge proportion of total expenditures. However, there is a growing recognition that, despite significant increases in resource, public service delivery is falling in many developing countries like Uganda. Poor service delivery to the people can be justified by ineffective procurement practices and systems within the Local Governments. Therefore the government, LGs, service providers and other stakeholders have to put up proper procurement planning policies, regulations, fair and competitive supplier selection, improved technology and better contract administration as suggested in this study to improve service delivery to the people.