Nyagah Grace’s scientific contributions

In Kenya, the public procurement sector has developed over the past 5 decades, from a system with no regulations to a system regulated by circulars; and currently, to a system firmly grounded on sound laws and policies. The aim of this study was to establish the extent to which public secondary schools in Nairobi City County had complied with relevant legislative and policy provisions guiding procurement reforms, as well as the effect of selected of reforms on expenditure management. This article focuses on the frequency of tender advertising. The evaluation research model III was applied to guide the research process and primary data were sourced in 2015 from 35 public secondary schools. Quantitative analysis included cross-tabulation with analysis of variance, chi-square statistic, correlation coefficient, as well as multiple regression. The study found that two-thirds of the schools were consistently advertising tenders as required by the legislative and policy provisions. Besides, the frequency of tender advertising significantly correlated with variation in procurement expenditure; and further caused a significant reduction in the same (beta weight = -0.335, t-statistic = -2.639 & ρ-value = 0.014), which signifies a positive influence on expenditure management. Ensuring consistency in advertising tenders is likely to help many schools improve on expenditure management; thereby, enhance the contribution of public procurement to national development.

The Kenyan public procurement sector has gone though colossal reforms, which were ignited by findings of country procurement assessment reports of 1986 and 1997; and hallmarked by formulation of the Procurement Regulations in 2001. This study aimed at establishing the extent to which public secondary schools in Nairobi City County had complied with relevant legislative provisions guiding procurement reforms, as well as the effect of selected aspects of reforms on expenditure management. The article focuses on one aspect of reforms, namely, frequency of emergency procurement. The evaluation research model III guided the research process and primary data were sourced in 2015 from 35 public secondary schools. Quantitative analysis included cross-tabulation with analysis of variance, chi-square statistic, correlation coefficient, as well as multiple regression. About two-thirds of the schools had developed procurement plans, as required by the legislative and policy provisions; while another two-thirds ‘occasionally’ practised emergency procurement. Besides, the frequency of emergency procurement significantly correlated with variation in procurement expenditure; and further caused a significant increment in procurement expenditure (beta weight = 0.457, t-statistic = 3.240 & ρ-value = 0.003), which signifies a negative influence on expenditure management. Limiting the frequency of emergency procurement is an important step towards effective expenditure management in public secondary schools.