Procurement Contract Management and Procurement Performance in Parastatal Organisations in Tanzania

Abstract

Despite a lot of initiatives being undertaken by the United Republic of Tanzania to improve public procurement, the performance of many of the contracted projects is not satisfactory since a significant amount of public money is lost through procurement contract management. The aim of this study was to determine the role of procurement contract management in Tanzania's parastatal entities. The study examined the impact of contract preparation, the competence of the contract management team, and the contract allocated budget on procurement performance and made recommendations for improving it. The study used a quantitative approach with an explanatory research design whereby data were collected by using a close-ended questionnaire. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 241 respondents who were heads of departments from the 93 parastatal organizations. The data were analysed descriptively by computing descriptive statistics and inferentially using a multiple regression model. The findings indicated that contract preparation, competence of contract management teams, and contract allocated budget had significant positive relationships with procurement performance at p<0.05. The study recommends that parastatal organizations' management should ensure that there is proper contact preparation, each contract being managed by a competent contract management team, and there is enough budget allocation for every project before it is started.