Factors Contributing to Adoption of E-Procurement in County Governments: A Case Study of County Government of Bomet

Abstract

The Public Procurement sector in Kenya has evolved from a crude and old system characterized by manual and paper work with no regulations to an orderly legally regulated system characterized by e-commerce and procurement procedures laid out in the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005 and the Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations. National government, county governments and a number of public sector agencies in Kenya have identified electronic procurement (e-procurement) as a priority e-Government agenda and have implemented or are in the process of implementing buy-side e-Procurement systems. The objectives of the study were; to determine the influence of technology on progress of eprocurement in the county, to assess how organizational culture affects the implementation of e-procurement and to establish how environment influences the use of e-procurement system in the County Government of Bomet. The research study employed a cross sectional survey design that use simple and stratified random sampling methodology with the simple frame being constructed from the departments which are concerned with the use of e-procurement. The sample size was drawn from a population of 45 staff members working in procurement, accounts and IFMIS/ICT departments. In this regard, 45 questionnaires were administered to all the staff working in the said departments and a total of 41 questionnaires were successfully filled and returned representing a 91% response rate. The research established that preferred way of procurement is e-procurement with 76% of the respondents supporting while 24% preferred the manual way. The research found out that technology, environment and organizational culture greatly influences the adoption of the eprocurement system. Among other recommendations the study recommends that county governments should do more on equipping staff in terms of ICT.