INFLUENCE OF PROCUREMENT RECORDS MANAGEMENT ON PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

The battle of forms in procurement process merits inculcation of procurement records management mechanisms in public universities in Kenya. In recent years, enormous institutions of higher learning have been receiving qualified opinion reports from auditor general audit review every fiscal year because of failing to submit the necessary documents for audit. This phenomenon invariably opens a pandora’s box on the issues being investigated since the report of the auditor general attracts the attention of other regulatory bodies and legal jurisprudence takes the normal course to the detriment of the institutions. This study investigated the influence of procurement records management in public universities in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design. A census method shaped the basis of the research study and all the 31 public universities were selected for the study. A self-designed questionnaire was used comprising closed-ended and open ended questions. Descriptive statistics measures were used using SPSS 22. Inferential statistics was also used to deduce correlation analysis as well as linear regression. The results showed that procurement records management and procurement performance had R of 0.484 and p-value of 0.000 at 95% confidence levels. The coefficient value showed a medium correlation between procurement records management and procurement performance. The results also indicated that, a unit change in procurement records management would lead to change in procurement performance by 0.268 units ceteris paribus. This implies that 1% change in procurement records management leads to 26.8% change in procurement performance in public universities in Kenya. The study recommends that public universities in Kenya should come up with automated procurement records platforms to ensure visible, authentic audit trail. Further, the universities should assign specific individuals the responsibility of maintaining procurement files to ease the traceability of the documents upon request by the relevant parties. The universities should also maintain procurement records in accordance with section 68 of the public procurement and asset disposal act, 2015 and adhere to record keeping systems provided by the public procurement records management procedures manual