DETERMINANTS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT PREFERENCE AND RESERVATION POLICY AT AGRICULTURE AND FOOD AUTHORITY, KENYA

Abstract

The Transparency International report indicates that women, youth and people living with disabilities constitute over eighty five percent of the entire population yet they contribute less than ten percent of public procurement involvement thus it hampers economic growth and achievement of vision 2030. This non-compliance provided an impetus to investigate the factors affecting implementation of preference and reservation policy in the public sector. Specifically, the study established the influence of supplier development, staff capacity, institutional and regulatory framework and ICT on implementation of Public Procurement Preference and Reservation Policy in the public sector in Kenya focusing on the Agriculture and Food Authority. The study adopted descriptive research design. The study focused on all the 8 directorates. From the directorates, a total of 73 employees from the IT, Finance and Corporate departments of all the 8 directorates were targeted. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data which was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics through Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.  The findings established that supplier development, staff capacity, institutional and regulatory framework and ICT have a positive and significant influence on implementation of Public Procurement Preference and Reservation Policy in the public sector in Kenya. The findings led to the recommendation that public parastatals should enhance their supplier development programmes in order to improve implementation of the policy ; public parastatals should develop their staff capacity in order to improve implementation of the policy ; public parastatals should develop effective and supportive institutional framework in order to improve implementation of the policy ; public parastatals should develop their ICT infrastructure to be used in procurement functions in order to improve implementation of the policy.

Key Words: Supplier Development, Staff Capacity, Institutional and Regulatory Framework, ICT, Public Procurement Preference and Reservation Policy