Factors influencing e-procurement application at Kenya revenue authority

Abstract

The recent changes in the Kenyan political landscape have brought about cuts in public sector spending and the demands of government institutions to be efficient in their operations. Kenya revenue authority with other public sector agencies, are required to make significant cost savings over the coming years. Lately, procurement has become one of the areas of public sector administration characterised by considerable costs and inefficiency where the adoption of innovative technologies, such as e-procurement, can be deployed to effect significant costs savings. However, there are many barriers to the adoption of such technologies. The aim of the research is to establish factors influencing e-procurement usage application at Kenya revenue authority. The research adopted a case study where six interviewees were selected and interviewed on the perceived factors affecting the implementation of the e-procurement at KRA. The findings were that there was some difficulty selling the e-procurement concept internally to organisational stakeholders such as senior management and end-users, a lack of confidence, a fear of making errors, lack of technology and innovation champions within the organisations which has inhibited full acceptance of process. The other factors that were found to affect the e-procurement process include size of the firm and organization readiness. Since, the data in the research was collected from top managers of the organizations on the basis of their subjective evaluations; objective performance indicators the findings might have elements of subjectivity considering that they will be involved in implementation of the e-procurement process. The research implication is that the firm’s senior management must consider their internal strategic management processes, training and involve other staff, and their own role in championing e-procurement to enhance organizational performance.