Influence Of Project Management Practices On Completion Of National Government Constituency Development Fund Projects In Kenya.a Case Of Educationalprojects In Mwingi West Constituency, Kitui County

Abstract

“The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of project management practices on completion of National government constituency development funds projects in Kenya( NG-CDF).The research was guided by four objectives namely; to determine how scope management influences completion of NG-CDF projects in Mwingi West constituency; to examine how stakeholder participation influences completion of NG-CDF projects in Mwingi West constituency; to establish how monitoring and evaluation influences completion of NG-CDF projects in Mwingi West constituency and to examine how risk management influence completion of NG-CDF projects in Mwingi West constituency. The researcher used descriptive research design with a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods of research approach. A sample size of 104 respondents was drawn from target population of 140 members of the NG-CDF committee and CDF project management for 22 projects commissioned in Mwingi West constituency in the financial year 2019/2020.Methodology involved collection and analysis of primary data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Quantitative data was tabulated and analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. The data analysis was guided by the Pearson correlation coefficient models.” The findings depict that that there was positive association between scope management, stakeholder’s participation, monitoring and evaluation and risk management and completion of NG-CDF projects. The relationships (p<0.000) are all significant with scope management (r=0.043, p<0.000), stakeholder’s participation (r=0.473, p<0.000), monitoring and evaluation (r=0.000, p<0.000) and risk management (r=0.567, p<0.000).The study concludes that there is significant positive relationship between scope management, stakeholder’s participation, monitoring and evaluation and risk management and completion of NG-CDF projects. Recommendation of the study is that there is need for appropriate outline of CDF project scope statement in the office and proper utilization of work breakdown structures, clearly outlining stakeholder roles to guide project implementation and the stakeholders should be involved in the phase out stage of project and existence of mechanisms or plans on risk Monitoring tools and there should be policies to mitigate on various project skills to steer the completion of NG-CDF projects. Further research can be done to assess the need to undertake similar research in other devolved county governments and national county government projects in Kenya and other countries in order to establish whether the explored factors can be generalized to influence project management practices on completion of NG-CDF projects. The findings of this paper may be used to serve as a longer-term safeguard against project management practices completion o NG-CDF projects in Kenya.