Public Procurement and Public Service Delivery in Zimbabwe Local Authorities. A Non-systematic Review

Moses Jachi ,Milton Makumbe ,Lucia Mandongwe

doi:10.7176/ppar/9-12-05

Abstract

The study attempts to theoretically explore the influence of public procurement decisions on public service delivery and to propose a structure of the relationship between an efficient public procurement system and the effectiveness of public service delivery. The study hypothesizes that there is a positive relationship between efficient public procurement and effective public service delivery in Zimbabwe local authorities, taking into consideration the mediating effect of corporate governance practices. The study briefly explores the historical background of procurement as an emerging corporate administrative function. Also, a brief review of the relationship between public procurement and public service delivery is outlined. The main objective of this study is to fill the gap in literature on the link between public procurement and public service delivery, and provide an opportunity for future studies to deeply and empirically investigate this relationship. Keywords: Public procurement, Public service delivery, Corporate governance DOI : 10.7176/PPAR/9-12-05 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Highlights

The scantiness of literature on public procurement is clear evidence that the profession is still relatively new (Flynn & Paul, 2014), and there are few documented theories on the subject (Basheka, 2013; Flynn & Paul, 2014)
There is a noticeable improvement in academic attention directed towards procurement research, the direction it has taken still does not fully address questions on the emerging debate concerning the relationship between public procurement and public service delivery, as much of the studies focus on organizational level aspects more than regulatory policy issues
Evidence form the available literature points to the notion that public procurement is a critical component of public service delivery

Summary

Introduction

The scantiness of literature on public procurement is clear evidence that the profession is still relatively new (Flynn & Paul, 2014), and there are few documented theories on the subject (Basheka, 2013; Flynn & Paul, 2014). Notwithstanding the fact that the original publications which defines the academic foundations of procurement surfaced in the 1970s, with the first procurement textbooks authored by England (1970), Lee and Dobler (1971) and Bailey and Farmer (1977), an increase in publications on the subject was felt in the early 90s (Chick & Handfield, 2014) This relative lack of literature on procurement in general, and public procurement partially explains why not much research has been carried out to date, to demystify the influence of public procurement on public service delivery (Basheka, 2013; Chick & Handfield, 2014). Its explicit elaboration is still lacking, in the context of developing countries, in Zimbabwe

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion