Public Procurement Strategy and Performance of Murang’a County Government, Kenya.

Abstract

This study was a cross-sectional study that explored to establish the influence of procurement strategy on performance of County Governments. The guiding specific objectives were strategic sourcing strategy, risk management strategy, negotiation strategy and e-procurement strategy. The theories related to the study were strategic choice theory, principal-agency theory and institutional theory. Further, the study adopted a conceptual framework to show causal relationship between independent and dependent variable. Independent variables are strategic sourcing, procurement planning, contract management and e-procurement which were shown have a causal relationship with the performance of County Governments as the dependent variable. The study adopted descriptive research design. Simple random sampling was adopted to select research participants. A sample size of 85 staff from the county government was sampled randomly using the simple random sampling technique from the total population of staff. The study used both primary and secondary data. The main instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire administered by the researcher. Quantitative data collected was checked for completeness, analysed through statistical analysis for social sciences version 23. Findings of descriptive statistics was presented in form of frequency tables and percentages. A pilot test was conducted before the main study to determine potential weaknesses in the data collection tool through validity and reliability test. The inferential statistics include Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis. The study findings indicated that strategic sourcing strategy, risk management strategy, negotiation strategy and e-procurement strategy have a positive and significant association with the performance of County Governments in Kenya. This implies that public procurement strategy and performance change in the same direction. The study found out that the county government in Kenya have not embraced public procurement strategy for effective performance. Further, the recommendations for improving public procurement strategy include reviewing contracts, enhancing supplier relationship management, conducting pre-screening of suppliers, maintaining compliance with regulations, updating risk management strategies, emphasizing negotiation for fair prices, improving post-negotiation follow-up, and strengthening the integration and security of e-procurement systems. These measures aim to enhance performance, supplier partnerships, efficiency, compliance, risk management, and coordination in the procurement process.