FACTORS INFLUENCING IMPLEMENTATION OF E-PROCUREMENT IN BUNGOMA COUNTY

The general objective of this study was to establish factors influencing the implementation of e-procurement in Bungoma County. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The researcher’s target population for investigation was drawn from procurement departments which comprised of 52 employees who were directly involved in procurement activities. The target population constituted 4 senior managers, 12 middle-level managers and 36 support staff. So the census size for this study comprised of the 52 procurement employees. Census technique method was adopted to identify the respondents. This size was considered manageable and each respondent was easily accessible. Structured questionnaire was used in this study to collect quantitative data. Descriptive statistics like percentages, ratio, mean and standard deviation was used to analyze quantitative data. Multiple regressions and Pearson’s correlation analysis was also adopted to determine the influence of independent variable and the dependent variable. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 24.0) was used to analyze data. The study found that the factors have statistically significant influence on implementation of e-procurement of County Government of Bungoma, Kenya. Of these factors, Top management support had the highest statistically significant influence on implementation of e-procurement of County Government of Bungoma, Kenya, followed by, technological infrastructure and lastly staff competence. The study recommended that county governments should procure infrastructure such as high speed computers and internet services in order to facilitate e-procurement implementation. The study recommended that e-procurement system must have mechanisms for identifying and authenticating the user who places an order so that the supplier knows it is safe to fulfill the order. The study recommended that formal recognition backed by legislation of the electronic procurement transactions should be legislated to accelerate the' rate of Implementation of e-procurement within county governments in Kenya. Key Words: E-Procurement, Technological Infrastructure, Top Management Support, Implementation CITATION: Walutsachi, J., & Keitany, P. (2020). Factors influencing implementation of e-procurement in Bungoma County. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 7 (4), 1324 – 1344.