Institutional legal environment and public procurement performance in tertiary institutions in West Nile Sub Region of Uganda.

Abstract

The study aimed to establish how institutional legal environment affects performance in public procurement in tertiary institutions in West Nile sub region of Uganda. A cross-sectional study design was used. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted in the study. This study targeted a sample of 122 respondents. Simple random sampling technique was used to select sample amongst the user departments’ staff. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the Accounting Officer and Contract Committee members. Quantitative data analysis mainly consisted of descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (Spearman Rank Order Correlation). Findings revealed an insignificantly very weak positive correlation (rho = .065) between institutional legal framework and procurement performance. Thus, it was concluded that institutional legal environment, measured in terms of procurement legislations and the Procurement regulations, significantly affected performance in public procurement in tertiary institutions in West Nile sub region of Uganda. It is recommended that tertiary institutions in West Nile sub region of Uganda should focus on other institutional dynamics like institutional human capacity, institutional culture, institutional politics and institutional ethical values, but not on institutional legal environment since the correlation was very weak, in order to improve performance in public procurement in tertiary institutions in the sub region.