Influence of electronic procurement implementation on procurement performance of Migori county government, Kenya

Abstract

Public procurement has evolved overtime by integrating information technology and internet to carry out all functions of procurement including; search, sourcing, negotiation, ordering, receipt, and post-purchase review. E-Procurement is one of the reforms that the government of Kenya has taken initiative to implement and enhance public procurement operations, reduce costs and increase efficiency. Migori County government is one of county governments struggling with e-procurement implementation. This may be due to ICT infrastructural cost, lack of top management support and capacity building needs. It was noted from empirical researches that public entities were not ready to fully implement e-procurement system. Despite all these, not much has been done to gauge the level of influence of e-procurement on procurement performance. The purpose for this research was to study the influences of electronic procurement implementation on the performance of Migori County Government. The specific objectives were: To determine the level of influence of ICT capital infrastructure on procurement performance; to determine the level of influence of top management support on procurement performance and to assess the level of influence of staff capacity building on procurement performance of Migori County government. This research was guided by a conceptual framework where the dependent variables was procurement performance whereas independent variable were ICT capital infrastructure, top management support and staff capacity building. The study was anchored on Technology Acceptance Theory, Innovation Diffusion Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Correlational research design was used. Census survey method was used on a total of the 80 employees out of 90 since 10 were used for pilot study. Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire. Validity was gauged using research supervisor’s criticism while reliability was tested using test retest and an r=0.825 showed good consistency. Regression results revealed that influences of e-procurement implementation together with explained 16% of the variance in procurement performance (Adj. R2=.0127) with standard error of the estimate at 1.112. Additionally availability and use ICT capital infrastructure, e-procurement system ease of use and training and top management support had a positive predictors of e-procurement performance: Availability and use ICT infrastructure (ß1= 0.131, p>0.05) top management support (ß2= 0.382, p>0.05) and ease of use and training (ß3 = 0.033, p<0.05). The study concluded that ICT capital infrastructure has a positive insignificant influences on procurement performance, top management support had significant positive influence on procurement and staff capacity building had insignificant positive influence on procurement performance of Migori County Government. The study recommended that counties should seek for influence of top management support to procurement performance since it had a positive significant influence on the overall performance.