Compliance measures and public procurement performance of state corporations in Kenya: An empirical analysis

Abstract

Compliance measures are the cornerstone of public procurement systems, holding procuring entities accountable to their legal framework. Kenya carries out this function through three mechanisms. Internal Audit Units conduct audits and controls; the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) monitors and evaluates; and the National Treasury sets reporting requirements. The individual contribution of each has yet to be determined. This study examined how the three compliance dimensions affect the public procurement performance of state corporations in Kenya. Etzioni's compliance theory guided the analysis. It posits that the three dimensions are separate mechanisms that respond to different types of institutional power. The study used a positivist, descriptive, cross-sectional design. The groups targeted were the 414 state corporations listed in Executive Order No. 1 of 2023. Yamane's formula gave a sample of 203 heads of procurement, distributed across the 21 ministry clusters by cluster proportionate sampling. A total of 167 completed a structured questionnaire, for a response rate of 82.3 percent. The three were entered concurrently in a multiple regression in SPSS Version 27 to determine the contribution of each variable net of the others. The three dimensions accounted for 54.8 percent of the variance in procurement performance. Each function retained an appreciable independent effect, indicating three distinct mechanisms and that an active one does not compensate for an inactive one. Audit and control were the most significant, followed by regulatory monitoring, the least mature of the three in practice. The Authority needs to expand the scope and extent of entity-level evaluation.