Factors Contributing to Adoption of E-Procurement in County Governments: A Case Study of County Government of Bomet

The Public Procurement sector in Kenya has evolved from a crude and old system characterized by manual and paper work with no regulations to an orderly legally regulated system characterized by e-commerce and procurement procedures laid out in the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005 and the Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations. National government, county governments and a number of public sector agencies in Kenya have identified electronic procurement (e-procurement) as a priority e-Government agenda and have implemented or are in the process of implementing buy-side e-Procurement systems.
The objectives of the study were; to determine the influence of technology on progress of e-procurement in the county, to assess how organizational culture affects the implementation of e-procurement and to establish how environment influences the use of e-procurement system in the County Government of Bomet. The research study employed a cross sectional survey design that use simple and stratified random sampling methodology with the simple frame being constructed from the departments which are concerned with the use of e-procurement. The sample size was drawn from a population of 45 staff members working in procurement, accounts and IFMIS/ICT departments. In this regard, 45 questionnaires were administered to all the staff working in the said departments and a total of 41 questionnaires were successfully filled and returned representing a 91% response rate.
The research established that preferred way of procurement is e-procurement with 76% of the respondents supporting while 24% preferred the manual way. The research found out that technology, environment and organizational culture greatly influences the adoption of the e-procurement system. Among other recommendations the study recommends that county governments should do more on equipping staff in terms of ICT.