FACTORS AFFECTING IMPLEMENTATION OF PROCUREMENT PROCEDURES IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS:(A Case Study of the Rift Valley General Hospital)

The general objective of this study was to examine the factors affecting implementation of procurement procedures in public hospitals, specifically the study sought to determine the effect of legal and regulatory framework, technology, procurement staff skills and organization structure on the implementation of procurement procedures in Nakuru County Teaching and Referral Hospital. The findings of this study is important to the policy makers in the public health sector as it will guide them in formulation of policies that advocate for effective procurement procedures. The study will also be of help to officers in procurement department to know the right methods of rating and choosing suppliers in order to avoid delayed service delivery. a case study research design was employed. The target population for this study comprised of 40 employees from the administration, procurement and stores department. The study targeted employee in the administration, procurement and store department since they are collectively involved in the procurement procedures. Since the population was of manageable size, the researcher used census technique to get a sample size of 40 respondents. Closed-ended questionnaires were used as the primary data colleting instruments. Testing of the reliability was done using a pilot study at Kenya Medical Training College in Eldoret where four (4) questionnaires were randomly distributed to the employee in store and procurement department. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistical techniques which includes percentage and frequencies so as to give meaningful results of data collected. From the findings the researcher concluded that the hospitals involve various stakeholders in the procurement process. Some of the actively involved stakeholder includes member of public, the county government, supplier and employees from the user department, but the county government is the most actively engaged stakeholder in the procurement process. The researcher further concluded that the level of use of technology in procurement operations is low. In addition, the researcher concluded that the organization doesn‟t conduct training programmes on application and adoption of technology in procurement. The researcher recommended that there should be adequate ICT infrastructure to facilitate implementation of procurement practices. Strong and effective pool of skills and human capital are extremely important resources for the implementation of procurement procedures. The researcher suggested that further study should be conducted on challenges facing public institution in the implementation of E-Procurement