Procurement Planning And Service Delivery In Local Government A Case Study Of Lira District And Municipality

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between procurement planning and effective service delivery by local government procurement system in Uganda with a case study of Lira District local government and municipal. The study was guided by three objectives: To establish whether procurement planning process contribute to effective service delivery, to examine the procurement planning practices that contributes to effective service delivery and to examine the relationship between the value of procurement planning and service delivery. Procurement planning was poorly done and executed at Lira Municipal Council (MC) and this led to a number of procurements not being executed and conducting procurements outside the procurement plan, hence hampering on service delivery in the district. The study was necessitated since procurement planning forms the basis of all procurement activities and public procurement’s main goal is to provide efficient and effective services to the citizens. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research design. The target population comprised of 170 and 130 sample was used (with a response rate of 90.77% got) district employees. Cluster sampling technique was employed and within each cluster, random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select samples for this study. Data was collected using structured questionnaires. The quantitative data collected was analysed using SPSS. The study findings reveals that, there is positively, strong and significantly relationship between procurement planning and service delivery. Procurement planning process represented by r. value of .947**, procurement planning practice at r. value of .989** and finally value of procurement planning at r. of .971** all at 0.000 level of significance. It can also be concluded that of the three the constructs under procurement planning (procurement planning process, practices and value) the one that has more impact on improvement of service delivery is procurement planning value and will lead to improvement in service delivery by 30.9%; followed by the procurement planning process (20.9%); and finally, the procurement planning practice by 17%. Finally, a number of recommendations were suggested such as the need to do market capability analysis (market survey), effectively design a comprehensive procurement plans and create awareness to all staff on the need to prepare procurement plans. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction This study established the relationship between Procurement planning and service delivery in the local government of Uganda. The study was limited to Lira district local government and municipal council. The study was based on procurement planning as the independent variable with dimensions consisting of procurement practice, procurement process and procurement value. The dependent variables were; service delivery consisting of timeliness, quality and cost as dimensions. This chapter presents the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the objectives of the study, research questions, the significance of the study, justification and operational definitions of terms and concepts. 1.1 Background to the study Planning is the foundation for all management fields. It is a function that forms the foundation for the rest of the management functions (Hassim et al, 2011). When planning is properly conceived and implemented, it can serve as an important mechanism for extracting, distributing and allocating resources (James, 2004). Generally, planning enhances the gathering, evaluating and interpreting of foundation data and information in order to generate knowledge for good policy making in the government. Procurement planning is the key function that sets the stage for procurement process. It has been argued that planning is not concerned with future decision but rather with the future impact of decisions made today and thorough planning is critical as agencies are always facing budget constraints that cannot satisfy all capital acquisition needs (Drabkin & Thai, 2003 as cited in Basheka, 2008a). According to PMBoK (2004) as cited in Hassim et al, (2011), procurement planning involves determining whether to acquire outside support, if so what to acquire, how to acquire it, how much is needed, and when to acquire it, while Mullins (2003) has argued that, procurement planning is the process of determining the procurement needs of an entity and the timing of their acquisition and their funding such that the entities operations are met as required in an efficient 1 way. Annual procurement plan is the procuring entity’s indicative plan of what, how and when to procure goods, works and services for a particular financial year. It is a tool that facilitates early and smooth procurement process and draws businesses’ early attention to procuring entity’s planned procurement of the forthcoming financial year (Basheka, 2006). Procurement planning calls for early involvement of the purchasing office so that options and alternatives can be explored with the requesting user. Issues such as purchase estimates, product specifications, make or buy decisions, and outsourcing opportunities may be very well being on the agenda (Mathews, 2005). At the end of the day, projects and procurements should be well planned for reasons other than exposure or reputational risks; they should be well planned to ensure the establishment of compliant and effective contract mechanisms that will ensure provision of qualified, capable and professional results to departments (Deme, 2009). However if this stage are not properly govern, it is difficult to meet all the requirements and objective of local government procurement. Thus, this could cause high risk to the service delivery. Planning allows an agency to link its procurement objectives to service delivery objectives and identify ways of improving how it purchases to meet its future needs (New South Wales treasury, 2004). In Uganda, an estimated 34% of the government expenditure takes place at the local government level (Agaba & Shipman, 2007). Proper planning for this huge expenditure is therefore an essential element of good procurement in Local Government systems of the country. The procurement objective is to provide quality goods and services through open and fair competition in the exact quantity and proper quality as specified; and has to be delivered at the time and place where needed. Therefore, to secure such goods and services at competitive prices requires accurate planning and involvement of a number of stakeholders.