Abstract:
Effective performance measurement in public procurement (PP) is the
only avenue through which evidence-based improvement can be injected
into the process. The over reliance of county governments on activitybased performance metrics has not only masked poor PP performance,
but also hindered continuous improvement of the process. This study
sought to determine the effect of ICT infrastructure on adoption of
strategic procurement performance metrics (SPPM) in county
governments, a case of Kakamega county government. This was
achieved through the lenses of institutional theory and public sector
scorecard model. A mixed method approach anchored on case study
design was used to collect data from the Kakamega County
Government. Inferential analysis was done using content analysis and
ordinal logistic regression. The study revealed that procurement
automation was unrelated (0.235 Wald χ 2 (1) = 0.37, p=0.543) with
adoption of SPPM. However, both procurement database (0.859 Wald
χ
2
(1) =9.608, p<0.05) and procurement data sharing (1.19 Wald χ2
(1)
=7.094, p<0.05) were found to be significantly related with adoption of
SPPM in county governments. The study concluded that functional ICT
infrastructure within county governments is a prerequisite for effective
adoption of SPPM. Basing on these findings, the study recommended
that county governments should invest in developing a functional ICT infrastructure to improve the technical capacity of adopting strategic
procurement performance metrics.