Influence of public procurement practices on road construction projects implementation; a case of Kenya urban roads authority (kura) Machakos

Abstract

Procurement is a core activity that has implications on the operations of an organization together with being an activity which cuts across all the departments in the organization. The study investigated the influence of public procurement practices on road construction projects implementation; case of Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) Machakos County, Kenya, to determine the influence of procurement planning on road construction project implementation, to establish the influence of contract monitoring and evaluation on road construction project implementation, to assess the influence of procurement negotiation on road construction project implementation and to establish the influence of procurement method on road construction project implementation. The study was guided by Agency Theory and Linear Policy Model. To achieve the objective of the study, a descriptive research design was used. The target population included 128 respondents from which a sample size of 56 was selected by use of simple random sampling method the sample size will comprise of; project managers, procurement managers, committee chairpersons and committee members. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select the project managers, procurement managers and committee chairpersons to participate in the study. The study used primary data which was collected by a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The study revealed a strong positive correlation between Project implementation and Procurement Planning and procurement planning was found to influence road construction project implementation to a great extent. It further established a strong positive correlation between Project implementation and Contract Monitoring and Evaluation. Procurement negotiation was also found to influence road construction project implementation in Machakos County to a great extent. Finally a strong positive correlation between Project implementation and Choice of Procurement Procedure was established. The study recommends Government of Kenya put in place procurement policies that ensure that clients get satisfied with the way projects are implemented and that projects take the scheduled time to get completed since it was noted that there are many variations to the project contract leading to high cost of the project. It also recommends the Government to ensure that e-procurement is embraced in its ministries and public sector to ensure open and fair procurement process. The study suggested further research to be done on the factor that facilitates effectiveness of procurement services within public organization. The study also suggested that further study to be done on the strategies adopted to ensure effectiveness of procurement services so as to give uniform and reliable result.