PROJECT PROCUREMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF WATER FUNDED PROJECTS IN KENYA

Abstract

Despite enacting the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015 and Regulation 2020, the Kenyan procurement system still suffers from corruption, secrecy, inefficiency, and unaccountability. In all these cases, vast amounts of public resources are wasted. This research sought to examine the influence of project procurement practices on the performance of water funded projects in Kenya. The study's specific objectives were to examine the influence of project budget management, supplier relationship management on the performance of water funded projects in Kenya. The research employed descriptive research design. It targeted 384 employees that are mostly involved in procurement decisions namely the Procurement staffs, Finance staffs and Engineers as technical staffs and Human resource staffs as representatives of user department at water funded projects in Kenya. The questionnaire was administered to the respondents through drop and pick later approach. This ensured achievement of a good return ratio and helped respondents to get a chance to seek clarification on questions which were difficult. Pilot testing was carried out to determine the reliability of the instrument. Primary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire. Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively using frequencies, Mean, Standard deviation and percentage while Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple linear regression analysis with aid of SPSS version 25 was used to generate inferential statistics. The data was presented in form of tables. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The study is expected to beneficial to procurement staffs, policy makers and top management. This study also enriches the literature that is currently available on how best to institutionalize project management best practices and extend the horizons of knowledge in the discipline of project management.