FACTORS AFFECTING PUBLIC PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF MICROFINANCE LOAN UTILIZATION: A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SOUTHERN REGION OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

This research aims to examine factors affecting public procurement performance of public organizations: A case of Southern Region Ethiopia public organizations. Based on literature reviews, the researcher identified five factors that affect the procurement performance. These includes: procurement planning, operating procurement procedure, contract management, competency of staff, and application of Information Communication Technology on procurement. Purposive sampling technique was employed and a sample of 191 respondents was used to collect the data. However 173 were filled and returned questionnaires. The return rate was 90.6%.The research design is made based on descriptive and explanatory research design. Both primary and secondary data were used throughout this research. For primary data, both structured, semi structured type questionnaires and interview questions were prepared. Both descriptive and inferential data analysis methods were used. Beside descriptive statistics tools like frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation are used to illustrate the demographic characteristics of respondents and perception of respondents from data collected through questionnaire. The study revealed that majority of respondents feel disagree on factors affecting procurement performance. Thus inferential statistics method like correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship the between independent variables and dependent variables. Multiple liner regression analysis also was employed to examine the influence of independent variables on dependent variable. Based on the finding of the study all factors affecting procurement performance have a positive correlation with procurement performance. The multiple regression analysis result revealed that all explanatory variables have   a significant effect on procurement performance. This implies that the studied independent variables namely, procurement planning, operating procurement procedure, contract management, staff competency, and application of ICT have significant effect on procurement performance. Therefore, the study recommended that procurement planning should be continuous process and not a onetime event, operating procurement procedure should be revised to avoid redundant steps, contract management procedures should be improved, the staff working in the procurement department should be well trained in all procurement processes, and automate their procurement systems of the organizations.