FACTORS AFFECTING EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT PRACTICE: THE CASE OF SOUTH WEST SHOA ZONE FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICES, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE (ETHIOPIA)

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess factor affecting efficiency of public procurement practices in Finance and Economic development offices of south West shoa zone. The studyused the descriptive research design and non probability of purposive sampling technique. To enumerate the data analyzed, qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. The population of the study consisted of 267 of the total population of Finance and Economic development of south west Shoa zone offices. The sample size was 160 staff focused on procurement section those directly participate on procurement and or from other section such as planning and budgeting section, account section, auditing section and other sections those indirectly have relationship with the procurement practice. From 160 questionnaires disseminate 149 returned and taken for analysis. The data was collected from primary source using questionnaire and interview.In order to do so, the researcher has identified four variables on which public procurement is assessed. These are budget allocation, staff competence, legal framework implementation and economic condition. The field data was statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics and narrative summary analyses. The descriptive statistics part was analyzed using mode, mean and standard deviation whereas correlation and regression were used for inferential statistics by using STATA software. The results of this study indicate that from the four key factors, budget allocation, Staff Competence and legal framework implementation are positive effect on procurement practice and economic condition has negative effect on procurement practice. The study recommended that Finance and Economic development offices especially procurement department have to work towards improving the four key factors that will make implementation of the procurement practices to be efficient.