Procurement management practices and their effects on local governments service delivery in Uganda: A case study of Iganga Town Council

Abstract

The study was aimed at investigating procurement management practices and how they affect service delivery in local governments in Uganda, with in Iganga Town Council as a case study. The study was guided by four objectives of establishing the relationship between transparency and effectiveness of local government service delivery in Iganga town council, investigating the relationship between non-discrimination and effectiveness of local government service delivery in Iganga town council, establishing the relationship between competitive bidding and effectiveness of local government service delivery in Iganga town council and finding out the moderator effect of procurement legal framework on the relationship between procurement management practices and effectiveness of local government service delivery in Iganga town council. The Principle-Agent theory was applied to explain the relationship between the service providers and the local government in Iganga town council. The most important variables were transparency, competitive bidding, non-discrimination, the legal framework as a moderator factor on service delivery. Data was collected by use of questionnaires, interview guide and observations. The researcher established that service delivery was affected by the procurement management practices in Iganga town council. Local governments should take on these procurement management practices to get value for tax payers’ hard earned money. It can be concluded that non-discrimination as a procurement management practice is very important to Local governments as it creates a wide supplier base from which you can get the best suppliers, also, that competitive bidding as one of the management practices, be developed as from many bidders it becomes easy to pick the most economically advantageous tenderer. It is recommended that transparency in the procurement process be taken very seriously so that better services are got in various parts of this country, also, that non-discrimination as one of the procurement management practices is used in all districts in this country for better service delivery in local governments