Procurement Procedures and Contract Management in Gulu District Local Government- Uganda

ABSTRACT The study aimed at examining the relationship between procurement procedures and contract management in selected departments in Gulu Local Government in Uganda. The study was guided by three objectives that include; to examine the extent to which procurement procedures are followed in Gulu District, to examine the extent of contract management in Gulu District and finally to establish the relationship between procurement procedures and contract management in public procurement of Gulu District. The study adopted a descriptive, correlational and cross sectional design with both qualitative and quantitative approaches. A sample of 92 respondents was established from a target population of 115 that included all selected departments in the local government, questionnaires and were among the collection instruments used for data gathering and then the analysis was done with the help of SPSS version 20.0. the findings established that functional user departments were deemed fit for this study since they are semi-autonomous in their expenditure. However, get funding directly from the Ministry of Finance through the local government and are bound by the new procurement law (The PPDA Act 2003). Based on the findings, it was suggested that procurement reforms have a great impact on the overall performance of the procurement systems in the local government authorities (3.22). in regard to the extent of contract management, the findings established that there is inefficiency due to delays in issuing of tender documents and further there is lack of capacity in contract management and monitoring of various stakeholders (3.10). The study also established significant relationships between public procurement procedures and contract management success in selected departments in Gulu Local Government. The study then concluded that there are various key determinants that affect effective contract management and hence the desire to minimize them cannot be emphasized enough, among these determinants included lack of a clear contract management plan and methods of capturing key data and finally there is also little flow of information among the government ministries and entities concerning contract management. The study makes practical and policy recommendations to the Government, Academic Institutions and the relevant authorities as to the way a head to improve contract management in the country that include investing more in expanding political capacity necessary to implement procurement regulations, necessity for more training of procurement officers and fighting corruption in the procurement procedures. The study therefore contributed to existing knowledge through examining the various determinants affecting procurement procedures and contract management and hence highlights the ways in which these problems can be overcome by covering the gap missed by other researchers.