Evaluation of the Procurement Process at Rusape General Hospital, 2018

Abstract

Public Procurement is the acquisition of goods and services by any public body in Zimbabwe. Rusape General Hospital makes use of public procurement as a way to help reduce raw material prices and costs and identifying better and cheaper sources of supply. Despite procurement procedures in place, Rusape General Hospital is still facing challenges that include inefficiency, access of information and stock shortages. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the procurement process of Rusape General Hospital. The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional research design. Convenience and Purposive sampling methods were used to identify the participants. The participants included all employees involved in the procurement process that include the hospital administrator, hospital accountant, heads of departments, procurement management unit and procurement officers. Semi structured questionnaires were the key data collection instrument for the interviews. The questionnaires solicited data on, Knowledge of Procurement Officers on procurement procedures, Competences of procurement officers to e-procurement, Compliance to procedures and Relationships with suppliers. Other method for data collection was observation using a checklist to check on the actual procurement process and various forms and documentation. The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The findings reviewed that majority of the participants (58.3%) were males. Seven (18.4%) had gone through secondary education with no other professional education. The rest had some tertiary education earning a diploma, degree or masters qualification. The level of knowledge of employees on procurement procedures was low, as most of the employees (52.7%) did not have full knowledge of the procurement procedure. The majority of them (65.8%) had not received any training on there is lack of training on public procurement procedures and e-procurement. There was also lack of good relationship with suppliers and compliance to procedures is limited. Therefore, it is recommended that more trainings to be made available to increase employee knowledge on procedures and e-procurement as well as interacting more with suppliers and encourage each other to follow the recommended procurement procedures.