The Effects Of Decentralization On Tender Award System In Local Governments: A Case Study Of Kampala City Council- Central Division

The study was aimed at examining the effects of Decentralization on the Tender award systems in Local Govemments, Kampala City Council-Central Division. The objectives of the study were to establish the extent to which the general public (beneficiaries) benefit from services tendered to private bidders, to examine whether or not the suppliers/ providers have executed the services for which they are tendered and to fmd out whether the award of tenders to the private bidders is free and fair. Data for the study was gathered using both primary and secondary sources. Primary data was collected from respondents selected from the contracts committee of Kampala City Council, managements of both Uganda Taxi operators and Drivers Association and Victoria Intemational Trading Company as providers for services in the city taxi park and St Balikudembe market respectively and the beneficiaries such as; drivers, conductors, passengers, customers, traders among others. Data was gathered using a combination of questionnaires which were open ended and closed interviews and direct observation with the analysis of companies' documents. It was hypothesized that the loopholes in the tender system were influenced by silent issues among which is the political influence, the t ender system however has apparently increased the revenue collection and Decentralization has failed to improve service delivery to the beneficiaries. Findings indicate that the award of tenders to the private providers were not free and fair, providers had exceeded the expectations of the contractors in execution of their duties and tendering had tremendously improved service delivery to the beneficiaries. The conclusion was that with practice of proper tendering procedures and following of the stipulated procurement guidelines provided by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA), the European Union