Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation on the Performance of Projects in Parastatals in Kenya: a Case of Kenya Ports Authority

Abstract

Infrastructure projects in Kenya have been the latest phenomena and most government entities have been part of it, KPA being one of them. The Port of Mombasa has been in the forefront in improving the current infrastructure in order to cope with competition from others in the maritime business. As such, this study purposed to investigate on the influence of Monitoring and Evaluation on the Performance of Projects in Parastatals in Kenya. The study was guided by following research objectives: To examine the extent to which stakeholder participation influences Monitoring and Evaluation in the performance of projects; to determine the extent to which M&E expertise influences Monitoring and Evaluation in the Performance of performance of projects; to establish the extent to which monitoring and evaluation structure influences Monitoring and Evaluation in the Performance of performance of projects and to assess the extent to which of budget allocation influences Monitoring and Evaluation in the Performance of Kenyan parastatal Projects in Kenya ports Authority. The research adopted Stakeholders theory, Human capital theory and used descriptive study design, with target respondent drawn from KPA, government agencies and Key External Stakeholders. A total of 50 questionnaires were given to respondents and 31 were returned, filled well and used for the study. The return rate was therefore 62%. Inferential statistics was carried out by use of Pearson’s Chi-Square analysis at 95% confidence interval and 5% significance level and was a 2-tailed test. The study indicated that there was a positive correlation between performance of project and Stakeholder participation, monitoring and evaluation expertise, monitoring and evaluation structure and budget allocation at (rho=0.521, p value <0.05), (rho=0.568, p value <0.05), (rho=0.578, p value <0.05) and (rho=0.451, p value <0.05) respectively. It was also established that monitoring and evaluation had a positive influence on the performance of projects in parastatals in Kenya.