Abstract:
As publicly funded institutions, public universities are expected to follow a
competitive and systematic tendering process when procuring goods or
services. Despite legislation and regulations aimed at ensuring adherence to
international best practices and promoting integrity and accountability, there
have been instances of inefficiencies in the tendering process, particularly
within public universities. The purpose of this study was to assess the
moderating effect of internal controls on the relationship between supplier
pre-qualification and procurement performance in public universities in
Kenya. The study was anchored on stakeholder theory. A positivist research
philosophy and a correlational research design was adopted. Target
population of the study was 1,016 employees from the selected public
universities. The study adopted stratified and simple random sampling to
select a sample of 287 respondents. Primary data was obtained using a
structured questionnaire, which was self-administered using a drop-and-pick
later technique. The validity of the research instrument was ensured through
an extensive literature review and consultation with subject experts and
supervisors from the procurement department. The reliability of the
instrument was examined through a pilot study involving 29 respondents
from the University of Kabianga where a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.834
was obtained. The obtained quantitative data was analysed descriptively
using means, frequencies, and standard deviation, and inferentially,
correlation and regression analysis were used. The study established that
internal controls had a positive moderating effect on the relationship between
pre-qualification (R2, change of 0.075; p<0.05), and procurement
performance. The study concluded that pre-qualification of suppliers, was an
important factor in determining the procurement performance in public
universities because it significantly explained the change in procurement
performance. Therefore, the study recommends that public universities
improve internal controls to ensure efficiency in the supplier pre-qualification
process as well as the procurement performance in public universities in
Kenya. The study findings could be significant to the management of public institutions and policymakers in public procurement, enhancing knowledge
in academia and theory development in procurement activities.
