Behavioural Practices and Procurement Performance in Uganda

Abstract

Despite the above reforms in procurement processes in Uganda’s State owned Enterprises, public procurement performance has not improved. This has consequently led to poor performance of State owned Enterprises. There have been allegations of a presence of opportunistic behaviour of procurement officers, absence of trust and mal practices like corruption and bribery by the contracting parties in the State owned Enterprises. This paper presents a study on the relationship between Behavioural practices and Procurement Performance in Uganda’s State owned Enterprises.
 This was a quantitative study confined to the area of behavioural practices and procurement performance of 20 State Owned Enterprises where each contributed 8 respondents making a total of 160. Data were collected, analyzed and presented using quantitative techniques.
 Correlation results show that there is a significant positive relationship between behavioural practices and procurement performance (r =.533**, p<.01). These results further highlight the fact that if elements of behavioural practices especially if Trust is well addressed, the institutions will realize an improvement in the procurement performance. This is because trust was found to be a very strong factor in determining behavioural practices.
 Further the regression model shows that Behavioural practices can significantly predict procurement performance in SOEs (Beta= .399, Sig. =.000).
 We recommend that, the behaviour of those involved in the contracting process must be checked. This can be through reference checks and selecting people with a proven record of integrity. Trust should be emphasized by both the State owned Enterprises and their respective providers in order to build a positive long-term relationship. Acts like deceit, cynicism and flattery must also be avoided at all costs.