Public procurement and asset disposal act and regulations compliance and their effect on prudent financial management in public secondary schools in Nandi County, Kenya

Abstract

The enactment of Public Procurement and Disposal Acts and Regulations in both developed and developing countries are among the 20 th century institutional reforms that have been castigated by the demand for transparency and accountability in the management of public institutions so as to ensure prudent financial management. Such legislative requirements ought to be implemented in public secondary schools due to the fact that they are public entities. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of public procurement compliance on prudent financial management in public secondary schools in Nandi County, Kenya. The study sought to determine the effect of committee training on prudent financial management, effect of committee awareness on prudent financial management and the effect of committee ethics on prudent financial management. The study was guided by Institutional Theory and Socio-Economic Theory. The institutional theory is the traditional approach that examines elements of Public Procurement while the Institutional theory stipulates that institutions are composed of cultural, cognitive and regulative elements. The study target population was 680 tendering committee members from 136 public secondary schools in Nandi County. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study. Sample sizes of 170 committee members were selected for the study. An interview schedule and a self-administered questionnaire were administered to collect information from the respondent. The response rate of the study was 81.76%. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses was carried out on the quantitative data using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient which was used to determine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables, while regression analysis was used to predict the relationship. The study found all the three components had a significant effect on prudent financial management. The study found that; committee ethics had significant effect basing on (β= 0.254and p < 0.05) while committee awareness (β= 0.381 and p<0.05) and committee training (β= 0.310 and p< 0.05) respectively had a positive and significant effect on prudent financial management. The study recommends that committee members should be made aware of the important of tendering procedures. Training of committee members should be a prerequisite and finally committee ethics is important in guiding the daily operations of the tendering committee. The study finding will be useful to the county in formulating policies that will help in streamlining public procurement in public secondary schools.