Determinants of Strategic Procurement Performance Metrics Adoption in Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

Many county governments in Kenya solely relies on transactional procurement performance metrics. The use of transactional metrics, which are more concerned with the activities in procurement processes rather than the outcomes of the inputs provide very little information for improving procurement process in county governments. It was on this backdrop that this study examined the determinants leading to adoption of strategic procurement performance metrics (SPPM) in Kakamega county governments, in Kenya. This was done through the lenses of institutional theory and public sector scorecard model. A mixed method approach based on case study design was used to collect data from 115 procurement, stores and finance staff of Kakamega County Govemment. Inferential analysis was done using ordinal logistic regression and multiple regression models. The study revealed that staff competence, ICT infrastructure and regulatory framework are positive and significant predictors of SPPM adoption. Specifically, staff training (p=0.OI 6<0.05), procurement database and explicit metrics (p=0.000) were the most significant determinants of SPPM adoption. The study also showed that national government support is negatively related with adoption of SPPM. Therefore, the study concluded that staff competence, a functional ICT infrastructure and working legal framework are the prerequisite for adopting strategic procurement performance metrics within county governments. Thus, the study recommends that county governments should invest in improving staff competence, developing functional ICT system while national govemment should enrich and enforce the legal framework to enhance the adoption of SPPM. The study notes the inadequacy of public procurement legal framework and calls upon policy makers to initiate refonns in the legal framework that will adequately address procurement performance measurement in the public sector. The findings and conclusion of this study not only affirm the influence of normative and coercive isomorphism in adoption of formal organization structures, but also hints that such may be dependent upon certain moderating factors. Furthermore, this study richly contributes to performance measurement literature in public procurement in subnational governments in developing sub Saharan African countries. To overcome its limitations, the study identified that there is need for future studies investigating the moderating role of county govemment autonomy on the relationship between national government support and adoption of SPPM