Influence of procurement process on completion of road construction projects in Kenya: a case of Bungoma south sub-county

Abstract

Construction is one of the largest industries and contributes to about 10% of the gross national product (GNP) in industrialized countries (Navon, 2005). Construction industry has complexity in its nature because it contains large number of parties as clients, contractors, consultants, stakeholders, shareholders and regulators. This research report evaluated the influence of procurement process on completion of construction of road projects in Bungoma south sub-County. This research focused on road construction Companies within Bungoma south sub county and the procurement department within Bungoma County Assembly as the procuring entity. The objectives that guided this study were: To determine the extent to which tendering process, client selection criteria used, control regulations in procurement and quality assurance influence on completion of road projects in Bungoma south sub county. . Literature review was done based on the themes of the study. The study was grounded on Goal-setting theory by Edwin Locke in the late 1960s.This theory is the most impactful in the construction industry, as it is widely accepted and applied to worker’ productivity. In the late 1960s, Edwin Locke proposed that people are motivated to work when they have a goal (Greenberg & Baron, 2000). Goals tell an employee what needs to be done and how much effort will have to be expended. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Descriptive survey research design based on questionnaire and interviews was used because the study objectives were descriptive in nature and required taking care of multiple realities likely to be found in the field. The instrument of data collection was the questionnaire and interview schedule. The researcher’s supervisors helped to confirm the validity and the study employed both purposive and systematic random sampling to obtain respondents for the study. Purposive sampling ensured that all the construction managers, all the county assembly committee members and all ministry of works officials provided information concerning the subject of study. Systematic random sampling was used to select 86 construction workers from the 25 construction companies whereby every 3rd worker was systematically selected from a list comprising all employees in all the companies Cronbach’s alpha was used to establish reliability. Data from the responses was organized; coded and analyzed. The analysis was done using descriptive statistics, tables, frequencies simple mean scores and percentages. It was recommended that all stake holders to ensure that there is quality assurance in the tendering process to ensure validity of the completed road projects.