IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v9y2025issue-9p8521-8532.html

Impact of Political Interference in the Procurement Processes in Local Authorities: Insight of City of Harare

Author

Listed:
  • Prof Bornface C Chisaka

    (Zimbabwe Open University)

  • Dr Shadreck PM Makombe

    (Zimbabwe Open University)

Abstract

The aim of the study was to look on the impact of political interference in the procurement processes in local authorities’ insight of City of Harare. The objectives of the study were to understand the nature of procurement process in local authorities in Zimbabwe, to examine the impact of political interference in procurement practices in local authorities and to proffer recommendations to mitigate the negative impacts of political interference in procurement processes in local authorities. The conceptual framework of this study is guided by three independent variables which were; political interference in project allocation, contract award, procurement legal framework and procurement performance as a dependent variable. The researcher used mixed methods research design and the population for this study was made up City of Harare procurement staff members and its stakeholders. A sample was selected and the researcher employed judgmental or purposive sampling in this study. The study reveals that that major tenders are influenced by politicians. This is at variance with the principle of politics administration dichotomy which provides that politicians are mainly responsible for policy making and not implementation. The study shows that corruption is a major challenge in public procurement because there were a number of tenders that have been associated with corruption and below are a summarization of the some of the issues. Harare City Council has been accused of awarding tenders for the supply of water treatment chemicals to shady and incompetent companies that offered them kickbacks. The study recommends that Harare City Council should introduce training programmes to the procurement officers and also there is need to ensure transparency in the awarding of tenders irrespective of nationality and political affiliation.

Suggested Citation

  • Prof Bornface C Chisaka & Dr Shadreck PM Makombe, 2025. "Impact of Political Interference in the Procurement Processes in Local Authorities: Insight of City of Harare," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(9), pages 8521-8532, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:9:y:2025:issue-9:p:8521-8532
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-9-issue-9/8521-8532.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/articles/impact-of-political-interference-in-the-procurement-processes-in-local-authorities-insight-of-city-of-harare/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eitan Goldman & Jörg Rocholl & Jongil So, 2013. "Politically Connected Boards of Directors and The Allocation of Procurement Contracts," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(5), pages 1617-1648.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Bo Cheng & Zi-Tian Wang & Qianqian Yu, 2025. "State Ownership, Environmental Regulation, and Corporate Green Investment: Evidence from China’s 2015 Environmental Protection Law Changes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 200(2), pages 393-416, August.
    2. Florin Alexandru Roman & Monica Violeta Achim & Robert W. McGee, 2023. "Fraud related to EU funds. The case of Romania," Journal of Financial Studies, Institute of Financial Studies, vol. 14(8), pages 120-142, May.
    3. M. Blomkvist & E. Liljeblom & A. Löflund & E. Redor, 2024. "Political Connections and Shareholder Support," Post-Print hal-04662505, HAL.
    4. Diegmann, André & Pohlan, Laura & Weber, Andrea, 2024. "Do Politicians Affect Firm Outcomes? Evidence from Connections to the German Federal Parliament," IZA Discussion Papers 17031, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Massimo Bordignon & Yanhua Deng & Jian Huang & Jin Yang, 2018. "Plunging into the Sea: Ideological Change, Institutional Environments and Private Entrepreneurship in China," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def074, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    6. Sokolov, Vladimir & Solanko, Laura, 2016. "Political influence, firm performance and survival," BOFIT Discussion Papers 20/2016, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    7. Mihály Fazekas & Romain Ferrali & Johannes Wachs, 2023. "Agency Independence, Campaign Contributions, and Favoritism in US Federal Government Contracting," Post-Print hal-03994320, HAL.
    8. Monica Martinez-Bravo & Leonard Wantchekon, 2021. "Political Economy and Structural Transformation: Democracy, Regulation and Public Investment," Working Papers wp2021_2110, CEMFI.
    9. Francis,David C. & Kubinec ,Robert, 2022. "Beyond Political Connections : A Measurement Model Approach to Estimating Firm-levelPolitical Influence in 41 Economies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10119, The World Bank.
    10. Ms. Deniz O Igan & Thomas Lambert, 2019. "Bank Lobbying: Regulatory Capture and Beyond," IMF Working Papers 2019/171, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Hinh Khieu & Nam H. Nguyen & Hieu V. Phan & Jon A. Fulkerson, 2023. "Political Corruption and Corporate Risk-Taking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 93-113, April.
    12. Adelino, Manuel & Dinc, I. Serdar, 2014. "Corporate distress and lobbying: Evidence from the Stimulus Act," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 256-272.
    13. Sokolov, Vladimir & Solanko, Laura, 2016. "Political influence, firm performance and survival," BOFIT Discussion Papers 20/2016, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    14. Barraza, Santiago & Rossi, Martín A & Ruzzier, Christian A, 2022. "Sleeping with the enemy: The perils of having the government on(the)board," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 641-651.
    15. D. G. DeBoskey & Yutao Li & Gerald J. Lobo & Yan Luo, 2021. "Corporate political transparency and the cost of debt," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 111-145, July.
    16. Colin P. Green & Swarnodeep Homroy, 2022. "Incorporated in Westminster: Channels and Returns to Political Connection in the United Kingdom," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 377-408, April.
    17. Daniel Albalate & Germà Bel & Francisco González-Gómez & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2017. "Weakening political connections by means of regulatory reform: Evidence from contracting out water services in Spain," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 211-235, October.
    18. Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Lin, Ming-Tsung, 2022. "Do shareholder views affect corporate political activities?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    19. Zou, Ganna & Zhang, Shengbo & Gan, Xingqiong & Cheng, Hua, 2025. "How government green procurement incentivises corporate green innovation? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1605-1626.
    20. Hong Zhang & Chudi Yang & Weiguo Zhong, 2024. "Do political ties facilitate or inhibit firm innovation in China? An examination of the institutional structure," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 2059-2089, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:9:y:2025:issue-9:p:8521-8532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.