The Impact of Public Procurement Reforms On Service Delivery in Uganda, A Case Study of Ministry of Foreign Affairs

ABSTRACT The topic of study was the impact of public procurement reforms on service delivery in Uganda, a case study of ministry of foreign affairs. The study was guided by the following objectives; to establish a relationship between contract management and service delivery, to establish other factors that may influence service delivery in ministry of foreign affairs and to suggest recommendations for service delivery improvements in ministry of foreign affairs. The study used both qualitative and Quantitative approaches involved use of descriptive statistics generated with frequency tables. The population under study included the staff from Ministry of foreign Affairs and service providers. A sample of 100 respondents out of the total of 150 of the study population was selected and approached by the use of simple random sampling method and interviewed at different levels. The samples to be used in the study was selected using purposive sampling which is a function of non- probability sampling. The study also indicates that other factors that may influence service delivery include; leadership style and management policy enhances effective organizations service levels, poor quality and time extension can affect the conformance to quality and timely delivery of service, Lack of clear and comprehensive project specification, lack of adequate supervision during ~rvice provisien, stringent reporting requirement on stake holders make service delivery provision to be deemed ~s burden, high levels of bureaucracy as a result of very strict reporting procedures, limited financial capacity of most suppliers and multiple stake holder requirement are burdensome to conform. The study also indicates that other factors that influence service deliver include; leadership style and management of policy enhances effective organizations service levels therefore the study recommends that the organization should clear and comprehensive project specification, increase adequate supervision of suppliers! contractors and above all the organization should select suppliers who are financially competent. The study also makes the following general recommendations; the organizations need to train procurement personnel, employees also need to be equipped with skills necessary for multi, tasking in addition to that the organization also needs to ensure that there is proper accountability in the procurement department. The study recommends the following areas for further research; The influence of procurement policy on service delivery, The effects of stake holder involvement on service delivery and Contract monitoring and effect service delivery.