Legal and Regulatory Compliance and Service Delivery in Semi-Autonomous County Government Entities of Kakamega County

Abstract

Corporate governance is the system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. Corporate governance essentially involves balancing the interests of a company's many stakeholders, such as shareholders, management, customers, suppliers, financiers, government and the community. It has been generally agreeable from many studies in the recent past that companies that have corporate governance systems in place also exhibit good performance which is actualized by the quality of service provided. This can only be fostered by following legal and regulatory practices by the companies. Thus, good corporate governance practices are increasingly being recognized as an important aspect of organizational success. This study sought to determine the effect of legal and regulatory compliance on service delivery in Semi-autonomous County Government entities of Kakamega County (SACGA). The study adopted a causal research design to determine the effect of corporate governance practices on service delivery in Semi-autonomous County Government Agencies. The target population was 478 derived from a sample frame two Semi-autonomous entities in Kakamega County through purposive sampling. Stratified simple random sampling was used to select respondents. A sample size of 30% drawn from the target population of the two entities was used in the study totaling to 143 producing a response of 128. Both Secondary and Primary data was collected using structured questionnaire and interview schedules. Validity was achieved through expert discussion while reliability of data was tested using Cronbach’s alpha resulting to Cronbach alpha of 0.756 which was above 0.7 threshold accepted in social research. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) with the main analysis tools being frequencies, percentages, mean and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and regression equation. Data was presented with use of tables. The study found out that there was a positive and significant relationship between legal and regulatory compliance (r=.529) on service delivery. The study concluded that legal and regulatory compliance contributes more to service delivery in SACGA.