Electronic Procurement and Performance of Procurement Function of County Governments in Kenya

Implementing electronic procurement and reaping its benefits for organizations has been a top priority for the public sector. Examining electronic procurement and performance of procurement function of county government in Kenya was thus the main objective of this study. The population for this study was 47 units of devolved government in Kenya which were envisioned by new constitution of Kenya 2010. This research relied on the following specific objectives: To determine effect of electronic sourcing on performance of procurement function of county governments in Kenya. To establish effect of electronic tendering on performance of procurement function of county government in Kenya. To determine effect of electronic ordering on performance of procurement function of county government in Kenya. To establish effect of electronic payment on performance of procurement function of county government in Kenya. The study used descriptive research design to collect and interpret data on electronic procurement and performance of procurement function of county governments in Kenya. Forty-seven county governments’ comprised target population of this research. 250 county government employees that are directly or indirectly involved in the procurement process comprised the unit of observation of this research. The researcher used both stratified and simple random sampling technique to select 30% of the total unit of observation to come up with a sample size of 75 respondents. The research used both open and closed ended questionnaires in order to collect primary data. The study used descriptive and inferential analysis to analyse gathered data. Generally, a large number of respondents exhibited responses to indicate that electronic sourcing, electronic tendering, electronic ordering and electronic payment affect performance of procurement function of county governments in Kenya. However, the analysis also showed that a significant number of respondents had a contrary opinion too as well. All these variables had a positive and significant relationship with performance of procurement function of these devolved governments. An examination of the joint relationship by the study confirmed these findings and established that these four variables jointly accounted for 69.9% of the variability in performance of procurement function. The study recommended that county governments should scale down on traditional procurement practises if full benefits of adoption of electronic procurement is to be realized. Further, it was recommended that government and other stakeholders need to work together on incentives of electronic procurement to encourage on technology use on running day to day procurement activities.