The Influence of the Public Procurement Law on the Market Economy in Kenya
Abstract
The paper sought to establish the influence of the public procurement law on the market economy in Kenya. The recurrent challenges in the practice of public procurement are not due to the absence of laws or regulations but the reading suggests that these may be related to capacity but most clearly too obvious dereliction of duty among decision makers managing the procurement processes and especially the contract management stages. This shows that the systematic weaknesses in the public procurement practice in Kenya cannot be fixed by further legislation as much but the strengthening of both negative and positive incentives for agents in the public sector to behave in the ways that are consistent with the interest of the public. The overall profligacy of the institutions of public procurement can be strengthened with better transparency, the adoption and enforcement of open contracting, creation of capacity and deployment of technology. However, the nugget of this study is not that Kenyan’s public procurement systems are weak or that they have enormous potential for contributing to its market economy growth. The real policy lesson is that the dysfunction of the public procurement reflects the inability of institutions such as parliament to assert authority in ensuring that allocations are used effectively and that the managers of procurement throughout the entities in government have the incentive to apply public resources well. Thus, the ineffectiveness of Kenya’s public procurement is an issue of the political economy in Kenya. In addition, solutions do not lie in new laws but ensuring that accountability for use of resources has real meaning. Sustaining Kenya’s development depends on getting this right.
Keywords: Public Procurement Law & Market Economy & Kenya.
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