Evaluation of the Use of Tenders in Public Sector Procurement
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
This study was guided by the following objectives
- To establish the extent to which duration taken in tendering influences effectiveness of tendering Process in Public Sector in Enugu state
- To examine the extent to which ethical practices influence the effectiveness of tendering process in Public Sector inEnugu state
- To establish how training of employees influence the effectiveness of tendering process in Public Sector Enugu state.
- To examine the extent to which record management influence the effectiveness of tendering process in Public Procurement in Enugu state
- To determine the extent to which ICT usages in tendering influence effectiveness of tendering process in Public Sector in Enugu state.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Tender Process in Public Sector
Tendering is a Procurement Procedure whereby potential Suppliers are invited to make a Firm and unequivocal offer on the price and terms in which they will supply specified goods, Services or works which on acceptance shall be the basis of a subsequent contract (Lysons and Farrington, 2006). Tendering is based on the principles competiveness, fairness and accessibility, transparency, openness and probity (World Bank, 2008). Internationally, all Public entities are subjected to open tendering by law so as to prevent fraud, waste, unethical practices or local protectionism (global trade negotiation 18th Dec.2006). Tendering language in Botswana is very similar to that employed by the World Bank. The Botswana Ministry of Finance is the ministry responsible for government procurement of consulting work. Although in the past the rules concerning procurement were very complicated and open to conflicting interpretations, in 2001 these rules were simplified and consolidated under one law: the Public Procurement & Asset Disposal Act (No 10 of 2001). Under this law, the Central Tender Board was renamed the Public
Procurement & Asset Disposal Board. The District Tender Boards were reconstituted as Procurement & Asset Disposal Committees operating within the District administrations but answerable to the central PP&ADB in the capital, Gaborone (GOK, 2004).
The main aim of the Botswana procurement policy is to ensure that the system is not corrupt. Nevertheless, a system of granting of preferences is permitted in the Botswana tendering system. As race is downplayed as a factor in Botswana society, such preferences do not depend on race, disability or gender (Jodie, 2004). In Botswana the system of preference is based on whether the consultancy or contracting company is owned by Botswana citizens. Only in the case of disasters or calamities are certain other preferences permitted: Section 66 of the Act makes provision for preferences to be made to “specific, disadvantaged women’s communities and regions and areas subject to occasional calamities.”
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The research design is the structure or approach of the research and also a kind of glue that holds the entire required element in the research thesis together and gives a concrete report to the researcher (Kombo and Tromp, 2011). Research design is the outline, plan or scheme that is being used to generate answers to the research problem. It is basically the plan and structure of investigation. Descriptive research sought to establish factors associated with certain occurrences, outcomes, conditions or types of behavior.
Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. Descriptive research design is a scientific method of investigation in which data is collected and analyzed in order to describe the current conditions, terms or relationships concerning a in a certain specific field Problem (Mugenda &Mugenda, 2003).
Target Population and Location
Enugu state, Nigeria were used for this study. Target population is defined as universal set of the study of all members of real or hypothetical set of people, events or subjects to which an investigator wishes to generate this result (Mugenda and Mugenda, 2003).
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALSYIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRENTATION
Questionnaire Response Rate
Out of 30 questionnaires which were given out to the respondents, 26 were filled and retuned. The response rate of all the questionnaires stood at 86.67% Ie Enugu north 13, 50%, Nsukka 5, 19.2% and EZEAGU 8, 30.8 % translating to 86.67%. This high response was achieved as the researcher self-administered the questionnaires with the help of the research assistants on a drop and collect later basis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARRY OF FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of Findings
The study found out that, majority of the officers are not reasonably remunerated considering their level of education despite handling tenders worth millions of shillings and that majority of officer’s levels of education is not adequate to handle such tenders.
The study also found out that, tendering processes were well managed and duration significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering process in Central region. Favoritism, tribalism, politics prevalence were low, but were present in tendering process. ethical practices in tendering do not significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering in the agency. In addition, sometimes Government tendering procedures were not followed.
Record management was found to be good in Enugu north, Nsukka and Ezeagu. On training, majority of officers had never been trained on tendering process. Among those who were trained, they felt that the training improved their performance in handling tendering process.
In terms of availability of ICT specialists, most of the departments had ICT specialists with and computers were used in stages of tendering. ICT was highly used in tendering in Central region and use of ICT in tendering significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering in the agency.
Discussions
On demographic characterises of the respondents, the following were the findings:
This study found that, 65% were male and 35% female. This indicates that majority of officers at Ezeagu, Enugu north and Nsukka from central region were male. The distribution of the officers was 31% work at Ezeagu, 19% Nsukka and 50% Enugu north. This indicates majority of workers were from Enugu north. On terms of service, 92% of the respondents were on permanent and pensionable employment terms and 4% were on contract and 4% are casual. The age distributions, 4% of the respondents were aged between 31 and 40 years, 58% were aged between 41and 50 years and 38% were aged between 50years and above. This indicated majority of officers were aged 41 years and above implying the workforce was not young.
On education level, 4% of the respondents had attained masters, 38% a Bachelor’s degree, 23% a diploma and 35% o-level. This shows that majority of officer’s levels of education is NOT adequate This concurs with the findings of Ahmed, Irfan, and Parasuraman, (1994) which found out that, the procurement Tendering system is manned by junior officers, who were therefore powerless to correct any anomalies and could easily be manipulated by their seniors and powerful politicians.
On income of the officers, 27% of the respondents earn below 50,000, 38% up to 50,000, 8% from 50,001-75,000, 12% form 75,001-100,000 and 15% above 100,000. This indicates that majority of the officers are not reasonably remunerated considering their level of education.
The study sought to find to find out to what extent does duration taken influences effectiveness of tendering Process in Enugu state. This study found out that, 73% of the tendering process takes 1-3 months while 15% take 4-6 months. In addition, 4% of the respondents felt that, the tendering process was very poorly managed, 4% poorly managed, 61% well managed, 31% very well managed. This shows that, majority of officers felt the tendering processes were well managed. On the influence of duration in tendering processes, 8% of the Respondents felt that duration taken influence the effectiveness in tendering process, 58% felt
it does not and 34% did not have any opinion.
Hypothesis one sought to test whether there is significant relationship between duration of tendering and effectiveness of tendering. The calculated Pearson product Moment Correlation coefficient of 0,93031 at 3 degrees of freedom implies that, there is a very strong positive correlation between duration of the tendering process and effectiveness of the tendering process. In addition, computed t-value of 4.3959 lies in the rejected area at 0.05 significant level. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected and we accepted the alternative hypothesis which means that, duration of tendering significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering in the agency.
The researcher further sought to find out if ethical practices influence effectiveness in the tendering process in Central Region in Nyeri County. On favoritism, this study found out that 4% of the respondents rate favoritism in tendering process as very high, 11% high, 19% moderate, 8% low and 58% very low. This indicates that, though favoritism is low, it is present in tendering process.
On tribalism, 8% of the respondents rate tribalism in the tendering process as very high 19% moderate, 15% low and 58% very low. This indicates that tribalism though not high in tendering processes its present.
On political interference, 4% of the respondents said that politics affects the tendering process profoundly, 27% say averagely and 69% say below average. This shows that though politics is present in tendering process it is not so pronounced.
On aggregate, 4 % of respondents felt that unethical practices, that is tribalism, favoritism and political influence, are very high in tendering process, 5% felt are high, 22% felt are moderate, 31 % are low while 37 % felt are very low in the tendering process. This indicates that, though there is unethical practices in the agency, the prevalence of such practices are low.
This finding concurs partly with World Bank (2008) findings which noted that, an unethical practice in Public Procurement was also facilitated by lack of transparency in the system; the applicable procedures were invariably inaccessible. On what can be done to improve the Tendering process in, majority felt recruitment of professionals to handle procurement, synchronize procurement procedure to be installed and more training to be done to those who handle procurement and those involved in tendering process.
The study hypothesis two sought to test whether there is significant relationship between ethical practices in tendering and effectiveness of tendering in the agency. The calculated Pearson product Moment Correlation coefficient of -0.6517 at 3 degrees of freedom implies that, there is a strong negative correlation between ethical practices in tendering process and effectiveness of the tendering process. In addition, computed t-value of -1.4882 lies in the accepted area at 0.05 significant level. Therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted and we rejected the alternative hypothesis which means that, unethical practices in tendering do not significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering in the agency.
The researcher also sought to establish how training of employees influences effectiveness of the Tendering process in Central Region in Nyeri County. This study found out that, only 4% of the officers had attained a masters degree, 38% a bachelor’s degree, 23% a diploma and 35% o- level. This shows majority of officers levels of education is not adequate. On training, 4% of the respondents attend training regularly, 8% quarterly, 15% yearly and 73% have never been trained. This shows majority of officers have never been trained on tendering process. On the effectiveness of the training respondents who were trained felt that the training improved their performance. This concurs with Landale (2006), who found out that, training is the process of acquiring knowledge and skills by the Team who participate in the public tendering process for efficient and effective service delivery. On how training helped in tendering process in the organization, those trained said that, learning of the Public Procurement Act of regulating tendering and procurement as a whole has helped in learning rules and procedure of tendering.
The study sought to find out how record management influences effectiveness in tendering process. The finding of this study reveals that, record management is good in Enugu north, Nsukka and EZEAGU with 31% of the respondents’ rating accuracy and completeness of the record in the organization as very accurate and complete and 69% moderately accurate and complete. This finding tends to disagree with by the Association for Information and image (AIIM) that states that developing countries have several record management problems.
Lastly, the study sought to determine how ICT use influence effectiveness of the tendering process. This study found out that, 96% of the officers have computers in their office while only 4% did not have.
In terms of availability of ICT specialists, most of the departments have ICT specialists. 15% of the departments did not have IT specialist, 69% had 1-5 IT specialists, 8% had 6-10 and 8% had between 11-20 IT specialists. On usage of computers, 96% of the respondents use computers in stages of tendering while 4% did not. This shows that ICT is highly used in tendering process. Study hypothesis three sought to test whether there is significant influence of ICT use on effectiveness of tendering process.
The calculated Pearson product Moment Correlation coefficient of 0.9093 at 3 degrees of freedom implies that, there is a very strong positive correlation between use of ICT in tendering process and effectiveness of the tendering process. In addition, computed t-value of 3.7847 lies in the rejected area at 0.05 significant level. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected and we accepted the alternative hypothesis which means that, use of ICT in tendering significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering in the agency.
Conclusions of the Study
Based on the findings from the study, it’s concluded that, majority of officers at Ezeagu, Enugu north and Nsukka from Central region were male and majority of workers were from Enugu north. On terms of service, majority of the officers were on permanent and pensionable employment terms and majority of were aged 41 years and above implying the workforce was not young. In addition, majority of officers’ levels of education is not adequate as 35 percent had o-level and 23 percent diplomas. On remuneration, majority of the officers were not reasonably remunerated yet they were responsible for procurement of goods, services and works of higher value
Majority of officers felt the tendering processes were well managed and duration significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering process in Central region and favoritism, tribalism, politics are low, but are present in tendering process and unethical practices in tendering do not significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering in the agency.. In addition, sometimes Government tendering procedures were not followed.
Record management is good in Enugu north, Nsukka and Ezeagu.
On training, majority of officers have never been trained on tendering process. Respondents who were trained felt that the training improved their performance.
In terms of availability of ICT specialists, most of the departments have ICT specialists with 96% of the respondents using computers in stages of tendering. Therefore ICT is highly used in tendering in Central region and use of ICT in tendering significantly influence the effectiveness of tendering in the agency.
Recommendations
From the results of the study, the researcher makes the following recommendations to the management of Ezeagu, Enugu north and Nsukka.
- All the employees involved in tendering process should advance their level of education especially those with o-level and Diplomas as their highest education qualification. The Ministry of Roads, EZEAGU, Nsukka and Enugu north heads should ensure this is done in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency in tendering process,
- The Government should improve remuneration of all staff involved in tendering process since they handle large sums of tenders of very high Value to avoid being corrupt,
- Ezeagu, Enugu north and Nsukka management should ensure that procurement policies and regulations are adheredto,
- The agency should train all the procurement staff and persons involved in the tendering process in order to provide them with skills and knowledge of procurement process.
- Lastly payments for Sale of tenders should be done online to add more value in the Tendering process this will greatly improve efficiency and effectiveness of tendering process.
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