Collaborative Public Procurement and Performance Among State Corporations in Kenya

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the immense challenges that have been facing state corporations since independency, the government is pushing for public procurement reforms in a bid to ameliorate their competitiveness. The study sought to establish the relationship between collaborative public procurement and performance among state corporations in Kenya. A descriptive survey was used to answer the research questions on the current status of the subject of the study and in reference to the objectives of the study. The target population of the study was all the state corporations in Kenya totaling two hundred and ten (210). A sample of 45 state corporations was taken out of this sampling frame. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from the respondents. The data was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed and presented as frequency and percentage tables. The study found out that state corporations have adopted various collaborative public procurement practices to enhance their competitiveness. This response has been necessitated by the dynamic nature of the now liberalized market. The study focused on the following collaborative public procurement practices: the agency’s involvement in information flow along the supply chain; the agency’s is involvement in the exploitation of complementary skills; the agency’s involvement in sharing in design process collaboratively; and the agency’s endeavor to access capabilities crucial to its competitiveness. According to the study 78.9% of state corporations have adopted collaborative public procurement strategies in tandem with the government’s procurement policy. The regression analysis conducted revealed that various collaborative public procurement strategies adopted by state corporations have not had a significant impact on their performance over the last five years as indicated by the low coefficient of multiple regression (0.200). This postulates that only 20% of the procurement performance of the state corporations can be attributed to the collaborative public procurement practices they have adopted. The study recommends that relevant authorities provide impetus to encourage all the state corporations to participate in collaborative public procurement to tap into the economies associated with collaborative procurement. According to the research there is need for more investments into research in challenges facing collaborative public procurement among state corporations in Kenya. The study was limited by cost and time.