Influence of Ethical Procurement Practices on Performance of Kitui County Government, Kenya

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of ethical procurement practices on performance of Kitui county government. The specific objectives of the study included: to examine the influence of transparency practice on performance of Kitui county governments in Kenya; to establish the extent to which accountability practice influence performance in county governments in Kenya; to investigate how professionalism practice influence the performance of Kitui county governments in Kenya and finally to determine the influence of Competition in procurement on performance of Kitui county governments in Kenya. The study was underpinned in three theories; principal-agency theory, systems theory and utilitarianism theory. The research design used was both quantitative and qualitative. The researcher used the sampling method to sample all the 589 employees from seven departments as the total population. Data collection tool was mainly a questionnaire. To ensure reliability of findings, the researcher applied the internal consistency technique, leveraging Cronbach's alpha. The findings indicate that there existed a positive and significant relationship between transparency practice and overall performance of employees in Kitui County government, Kenya with coefficient of correlation ( r = 0.617, p = 0.000). It was also observed that accountability practice has a positive relationship with performance of procurement process in Kitui County government, Kenya with coefficient of correlation ( r = 0.107, p = 0.000). The results established that professionalism practice has a significant positive relationship with performance of procurement practitioners in Kitui County government, Kenya with coefficient of correlation (r = 0.377, p = 0.000). Finally the findings indicated that there was a slightly significant positive relationship between competition practice and employees' perfomance in Kitui County government, Kenya with coefficient of correlation (r = 0.017, p = 0.000). It was concluded that; the procurement process needs to embrace transparency, competition, accountability and professionalism. The study recommended that procurement rules and regulations should be put into place and strictly adhered in every step of the tendering process to ensure transparency. Procurement officers should be given room to make independent decisions without undue influence from their seniors to ensure accountability.