Challenges facing procurement committees in implementing the procurement act, a case of secondary schools procurement committees in Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper presents the challenges facing procurement committees in secondary schools in Kisii County in the implementation of the public procurement Act of 2005 in the procurement of goods and services used in secondary schools in Kenya, in response to both domestic and international pressures, the secondary schools committees have recently undertaken important initiatives to make their public procurement systems more efficient and transparent in line with the public procurement and disposal Act of 2005. A cross-sectional survey was used, with the sampling frame comprising members of the secondary Procurement committees in Kisii County. Sets of both pre-tested structured and unstructured questionnaires were used to interview a random sample (82) of the Procurement committee members derived using the formula of Israel (1992) of known target population, N. The data was analyzed with the aid of the SPSS (Version 11.5) computer software and presented in form of descriptive tabular summaries. The study finding indicated that the experience with the reforms has been quite varied. There is an urgent need for strengthening institutions involved in public procurement, as these institutions tend to lack technical capabilities and experience external influences. The paper concludes by emphasizing that there are certain imperatives for the development of an effective procurement system. These are: strengthening the democratic political process, and public accountability; creating real market conditions; and improving work ethics in which public good is valued more than individual.