NEVUMBA, Sr. Benedicta
Description:
The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Procurement Process in local
governments, the focus being Magu District Council. Specifically, the study was intended
to find out how the procurement policies are implemented in the council, to identify
whether the council performs the procurement activities according to the PPA 2011 and
examine the effectiveness of procurement process in the council. The study employed a
descriptive design and a mixed research approach. A sample of 171 participants from
different public sectors of Magu Ditrict was involved. The tools involved in data
collection were questionnaire, interview and documentary review. The data obtained by
these tools were analysed qualitatively and descriptively using descriptive statistics and
content analysis. With regard to how procurement policies are implemented in the
council, the study revealed that, there is a great violation of Public Procurement Act of
2011 for there was a lot of emergency procurement executed without justifiable reasons.
At the same time there was no aggregating of requirements in order to obtain value for
money and reducing procurement costs. Pertaining to whether the council is transparent,
it was reported that tenders are not open to outside prospective bidders as the council
advertise tenders through notice board only, and selection of bidders is done on the
grounds of who know who and not who qualifies. The procurement process at MDC were
reported ineffective for the goods and services rendered by the suppliers were not of the
specified standards; besides, the council had no annual procurement plan. Thus, the study
recommends that suppliers should be selected on the basis of national competitive
bidding in order to encourage competition among the suppliers; this would enable
provision of quality goods and services worthy the value of money paid. The findings
obtained from this study reveal what actually happens in government sectors. Policies
and regulations are there to be applied and may be indeed appropriate for practical
development and financial management but their application in actual situations is
different from what is expected. Those responsible do not apply the regulations and
procedures set.