Abstract:
The study sought to examine the relationship between procurement planning practices and service delivery among counties in Kenya, a case of Kericho county Government. Procurement planning is the process used by companies or public institutions to plan purchasing activity for a specific period of time; Procurement planning is one of the primary functions of procurement. Service delivery on the other hand is a set of principles and policies used to guide the design and development of services delivered by a service provider with a view of offering a consistent service experience to a specific user, it is a system of periodical performance of supplying requesters needs both from the customer point of view and the provider point of view. Despite this importance, very limited scientific research has been done to examine the extent to which efforts in procurement planning can contribute to effective service delivery in county Governments in Kenya. The main objective therefore was to determine the effectiveness of the Procurement planning practices on service delivery. In doing so, the study focused on the effectiveness of need evaluation, cost estimation, Risk Management and Quality specification on service delivery. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A survey design seeks to obtain information that describes existing phenomena by asking individuals about their perception, attitude and values and describe things as they exist. All the employees in the procurement department at the Kericho county Government constituted the target population. Census study was employed when selecting the respondents. In this the 60 employees will be the respondents to the study. Primary data will be collected using a structured questionnaire which was confined the responses within a given set. The researcher sought expert judgment and approval from the supervisor to ensure the validity of the instrument. The SPSS was applied in measuring reliability coefficient. Further tests were realized through Cronbach Alpha whereby α=0.96 was obtained. The data was analyzed using inferential statistics and descriptive such as mean and mode with the help of statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. The responses on these metrics were measured on five-point Likert scale whereby: 5-strongly agree; 4-agree; 3-undecided; 2-disagree; 1-strongly disagree. The findings revealed positive relationship between proper need assessment, cost estimation, quality specification and service delivery. However, risk assessment was found to negatively correlate with service delivery. From the findings of the study, it was recommended that procurement planning has an influence on aspects of service delivery within an organization. The study therefore suggests the following aspect of procurement planning for further studies; a research on the relationship between procurement planning and service delivery of county governments other than Kericho.
