International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue III, March 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Effects of Employee Skills on Public Procurement Performance at National Youth Service, Kenya

Gilbert Njogu Wanjiru¹, Dr. Peris Chege^2
1,2Department of Management Science, School Of Business, Kenyatta University, Kenya

Abstract: Public procurement plays a leading role in the attainment of political, economic and social goals of a country through provision of goods, works and services. However, material quality defects, compromised order cycle time, lead time and poor contract management among others, are rampant. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of employee skills on public procurement performance at National Youth Service, Kenya. To achieve its objective, the current study adopted a descriptive research design using quantitative approach and a census method. A closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect primary data using drop and pick tactic. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 21). The findings were presented in frequencies; percentages, mean and standard deviation were thematically presented in tables and figures. The study established that employee skills had a positive significant effect on public procurement performance. The study concluded that staff possess relevant procurement functionality skills, there is cross-function teamwork among staff, high level of integrity is embraced by employees, confidentiality of classified matters, this was to avoid conflict of interest, personnel had required procurement knowledge and employees had adequate experience in procurement processes respectively. The study recommended that in-house training and couching be promoted to cultivate stated organization culture such as behaviour, ideas, attitudes, values, habits, beliefs, customs and language among employees.

Keywords: Employee Skills, Public Procurement Performance

I.INTRODUCTION

The importance of public procurement performance cannot be overstated as it is one of the main tools for attaining political, economic and social goals of a country. It is the foremost provider of goods, works and services for the public sector, subverted institutions and any other institutions using public funds (Matto, 2017). Procurement is concerned with the management of a significant proportion of the non-pay expenditure and ensuring that the best possible value for money is obtained when committing this expenditure. It represents a sizeable proportion of a nation’s expenditure accounting for around 15% of the world’s GDP (World Bank, 2017). Research indicates institutional factors have stronger impact on performance of different public procurement aspects than other factors (Vaidy, 2015). For instance, in Australian public healthcare sector, organization culture was found to affect procurement performance in terms of prolonged delay in giving tender results to prospective suppliers (Liebowitz, 2015).