Ethical principles and procurement management in selected public secondary schools in Kericho county, Kenya.

Abstract

Ethical practices are norms that are accepted and should be adopted in institutions to ensure a flawless procurement management process. The procurement system varies depending on the organization in a major way due to the fact that most projects are donor-funded, thus creating inconsistency in public schools. This study aimed to determine the relationship between ethical principles and procurement management in selected public secondary schools in Kericho County. The study was guided by the following theories deontological theory and virtue ethical theory. The study adopted a correlation research design. The target population used 220 public secondary schools, which comprised 1100 tendering committees. The study used stratified and simple random sampling techniques to sample the school. The sample size was 294 respondents, which were derived using Yamane’s formula. Questionnaires were used for data collection. It is hoped that the findings of the study may benefit school management, scholars, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Descriptive and inferential methods were utilized for data analysis and presentation. ANOVA results indicated that ethical principles had a significant relationship with procurement management (p < 0.05). Ethical principles should be adhered to since it has improved procurement management significantly. Therefore, there is a need to tighten internal control systems in detecting procurement corruption and fraud to ensure integrity in the process.