Challenges Affecting Public Procurement Performance Process in Kenya

The world over, challenges affecting procurement performance has been attracting attention from scholars, practitioners, academicians and researchers due to poor performance resulting from non-adherence to proper processes and procedures. This paper aims at identifying the challenges facing public procurement performance in the Kenyan public sector. Literature highlights, procurement process, ICT adoption, Ethics and supplier relationship management as some of the key challenges that affects public procurement performance. Legislations to regulate public procurement process in Kenyan have been implemented, through enactment of The Public Procurement and Disposal Act (2005) and Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations (2006). The challenges faced by public procurement have been propagated due to the fact that existing legislations do not foster use of technology in procurement process and formation of long term buyer-supplier relations. Maintenance high ethical standards in the procurement process has also been a nagging challenge, this is exhibited by the poor ranking by Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2012 at position 139 out of 174 economies in the world. The paper concludes that public procurement performance in Kenya can only be improved through review of existing legislations to encourage extensive use of technology in the management of the procurement process, fostering of long term buyer-supplier relations and stakeholder involvement through trainings and sensitization on practicing ethical behavior when conducting procurements. Key words: Challenges of Public of Procurement Performance in Kenya, Procurement Process