FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION OF E-PROCUREMENT STRATEGY IN COUNTY GOVERNMENTS’ (CASE STUDY OF MOMBASA COUNTY GOVERNMENT)

ANDREW LESUNGUR LENGURO

Masters Student, Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology, Kenya

DR. FRIDAH THEURI

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

CITATION: Lenguro, A. L & Theuri, F. (2015). Factors affecting the adoption of e-procurement strategy in county governments’ (case study of Mombasa county government).International Journal of Human Resource and Procurement 4 (10), 1-24.

ABSTRACT

The phenomenon of e-procurement in the public sector is steeped in story, myth and legend, much of it arising from the smoke and mirrors of the dot.com era. The situation is complicated in the public sector by the desire of governments to be at the forefront of technological advances and for public procurement, including e-procurement, to be used as a vehicle for the achievement of a raft of public policy objectives Tonkin Christine (2003). This study is both quantitative and qualitative in nature; and anchored on one of the milestones of Intergrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) a policy strategy implemented by the Ministry of Finance through the National Treasury of the Government of Kenya. Mombasa County is the second most important county in Kenya (after Nairobi Capital City County), due to its strategic location to both Kenya and the Region. The county with a population of 1.2 million hosts Kenya's second largest city, Moi International Airport and is a tourism haven. This study was initiated to find out relevant eprocurement (Procure to Pay) county equipment’s availability, the skills and competencies of county procurement staff, the institutional/organizational awareness of eprocurement procedures and the county executive management acceptance of eprocurement as a strategy; for effective and efficient integrity on procurement of goods and services in the county. The target population was the sixty eight (68) staff of procurement department and the relevant departments undertaking procurement within Mombasa county government main offices at the island. The sample size was thirty three (33) personnel staff directly involved in procurement processes. The data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The SPSS analysis method was used to interpret the data to arrive at both conclusions and

recommendations. The findings showed that the most impacting factors for the adoption of eProcurement were the Information Technology and Communication (ICT) infrastructure and staff skills and competencies development (re-skilling the staff). This study will like to recommend to the County Government of Mombasa to prioritize the establishment of a comprehensive ICT infrastructure to integrate the stakeholders of eProcurement in the county to improve its adoption faster. The second other critical factor to implement is the training of staff on skills specifically targeting eProcurement implementation. This is called “re-skilling for eProcurement adoption” procedures. This can be done with other public and private consultants to create practical scenarios in eprocurement industry leaders.

Key Words: eProcurement, Mombasa county, public procurement, eprocurement adoption, devolved government, E-collaboration

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