A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Business in Partial/Fulfilment of the
Requirements for Award of the Master’s Degree of Procurement and Supply
Chain Management (Msc. PSCM) of Mzumbe University
The study assessed the centralization and decentralization of procurement functions in
public organizations in Tanzania. The study was carried out with four research
objectives guiding it to assure information generation to fill the gap that was
identified. The objectives include to determine supplies that have been centralized
and decentralized; relationship between centralized and decentralized procurement on
organization performance; to analyze procurement guidelines for implementation of
centralized and centralized procurement for procurement function at TANESCO; and
effects of placing procurement functions near or far from end user. It was conducted
in Tanzania Electricity Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) using case study
design or approach.
The study generated facts to fill the gap from the employees of the organization from
the sample of 50 respondents and three key informants using structured
questionnaires and interviews. Mixed method was employed since the study consisted
of qualitative data gathered through interviews and quantitative data and information
gathered through questionnaires through causal relationship approach. Data which
were collected using interviews were analyzed using content analysis approach and
presented using themes to support the results. Moreover, data which were gathered
using questionnaires were filled in SPSS data sheet version 23.0 whereas they were
analyzed by the software to generate statistics to present the primary data. In that
case, descriptive statistics were used to describe the profile of the respondents; while
correlation and multiple regression was used describe the relationship between study
variables. Narration approach was used to state the findings which were gathered
through interviews.
Findings of the study indicated various supplies that have been centralized and
decentralized prior to the decentralization process in procurement. Also, the
relationship between centralized and decentralized procurement on performance of
the organization it was noted that all three predicting variables tested on organization
performance as the dependent variable were positive and statistically significant to
the dependent variable. In addition to that, the study indicated that procurement
function in TANESCO is facilitated by the procurement guideline stipulated under
the public procurement Act 2011 Act No. 7 and its amendments of 2016 and the
procurement manual of the company. The implication of the study is that
decentralization practice in TANESCO in procurement function has indeed generated
positive results regardless of the shortcomings that may be in place but the reality is
that the decision has proved to be worthy as far as performance of the organization is
concerned.