The Effects of Public Procurement Practices on Procurement Prices: A Case of Selected Procuring Entities

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to assess the effects of public procurement practices on the procurement prices among the selected procuring entities in Dar es Salaam. Specifically, the study aimed at determining the effects of competition, centralization, timely payment, negotiation and integrity on procurement prices reasonableness among the selected procuring entities. The study was carried out at Dar es Salaam with the inclusion of three procuring entities; College of Business Education (CBE), Institute of Adult Education (IAE) and Tanzania Public Service College (TPSC). The study employed convergent mixed research design, where both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 210 and 20 respondents respectively for triangulation of findings. The study findings indicated that competition, timely payment, negotiation and integrity have significant positive effects on procurement prices reasonableness among the selected procuring entities. However, it was revealed that centralization has insignificant negative effect on procurement prices reasonableness contrary to the study hypothesis.   The study recommends more amendments on the public procurement rules, regulations and guidelines so as to warrant the effectiveness of competition, timely payment, negotiation and integrity in the public procurement proceedings for attainment of reasonable procurement prices. Moreover, the study recommends for the government to provide fully support to the policy makers and individual procuring entities in respect to the aforesaid matters.