Assessing the Impact of E-Procurement on the Performance of Public Sector Organizations: Evidence from Nigeria

Electronic procurement is one of the emerging trends in procurement process especially in developing countries, and it represents an important achievement for organizations striving to triumph in health competitiveness. This study aims to assess the impact of e-procurement on the performance of public sector organizations in Nigeria. Data were obtained from sample of 50 involved employees from INEC, TETFUND and NBS that represents critical public organisations in Abuja through open-ended questionnaire. Using inferential and regression instrument of analysis, the findings suggest that e-procurement exerts a significant and positive impact on performance of Public Sector Organizations in Abuja, Nigeria. Other variables adopted are technological infrastructure, organization size and top management attitude. It also revealed that MDAs have adopted E-procurement process in procurement activities. The study recommends for Government to continue to provide an enabling environment in terms of information technology Infrastructure and leadership to improve the procurement process. The study also reiterates the need for further research on the institutional responses to E-procurement adoption in Public Sector Organizations in Nigeria.


Introduction
Procurement system is a vital part of an organization's supply chain system. Effective and Efficient use of goods, works and services starts with getting them at the most realistic and cost effective way and without that profits cannot be made .Any organization that strives for excellence must find a way of procuring wisely. The importance of procurement in an organization cannot be over-emphasized. Public sector organization of any economy plays a great part in the success of any nation. Procurement, which is the process of obtaining goods and services mainly for business purposes, is a core function of any organization.Information Technology in the past few decades has changed the way in which organizations communicate, conduct business, and interact with one another and government agencies. There has been a revolution in technological progress which has benefited the business world and has allowed organizations to work more efficiently and maximize productivity.
To make E-procurement work in an organization an E-procurement software must be set-up. With this you eliminate the need for paper based methods and through automation you no longer requireprocesses that are time-consuming and and likely to have error prone ways of doing things. Globally E-procurement is more known with the invention of technology. Electronic procurementis the act of using electronic methodsmainly the internet and solutions mainly in cloud but also hardware created software applications, to achieve and enhance the sourcing and buying of goods and services through internet, processing and information dissemination AWorld Bank analysis showed that UMUCYO is a web based E-procurement system introduced in Rwanda based on a law passed in 2007 (Gihozo, 2020). Many other Countries including Nigeria was one of the early beginners of E-procurement in Africa especially the Building industry Nigeria (Adeniyi et al., 2020). Some Multi national organisations like NLNG had also started the use of E-procurement but the Procurement law that supported E-procurement was signed into law in 2007 (Shatta et al., 2020). The introduction of the law came about following a survey of assessment carried out by world bank conducted in 1999 which established the nexim between poor/frail public procurement procedure and corruption and the report said 60k was being lost from every One Naira spent by Government due to sharp and underhand practices (Akaba et al., 2020). An average of ten billion dollars was lost annually due to fraud in award and execution of Government contracts and it is against this scenery that this study seeks to examine the impact of E-procurement on performance of public sector organizations based on the opinions of staff of public sector organizations in Abuja , Nigeria (Akaba et al., 2020).
E-procurement has been identified as a major tool to drive transparency, accountability and responsibility in any great economy. Traditionally procurement involves huge paper work as well as integration of sellers relationship through transparent processes in procurement methods (carayannis and popescu, 2005). Eprocurement can have a great impact in making the procurement to be more simple and very efficient. Eprocurement technological application leads to greater profitability and greater cost savings for businesses. Use of E-procurement helps to reduce cost of procurement and also provides a plan for better co-ordination between suppliers,better transaction process time and better methods (Samaniego et al. 2006) Failing to prepare is preparing to do what is absolutely not beneficial to an organization. Preparing involves getting raw materials, sourcing for manpower and using the best possible means to carry out operations. The only way to succeed as a company is to procure wisely. If there is an error in procurement then the whole process of running a business is flawed. Procuring electronically is a dependable way to be sure that you have prepared properly. E-procurement has been identified as a major tool to drive transparency, accountability and responsibility in any great economy. Traditionally procurement involves huge paper work as well as combination of suppliers relationship through transparency in procurement process . E-procurement can have a major impact in making the procuring simpler and better. E-procurement technological application leads to increase profit and better cost savings for Organizations. Use of E-procurement helps to reduce cost of purchasing and also provides a basis for good co-ordination between different suppliers, faster transaction time and better and improved process efficiency.
The Objective of this research is to find out how public sector organizations are adopting e-procurement in Nigeria and how e-procurement has improved the performance of public sector organization in Nigeria and to determine the level of use of e-procurement in the operations of Ministries, Departments and Agencies either to a degree or full use of E-procurement in public Organizations in Nigeria. There have been researches carried out on the effect of E-procurement in Nigeria as related to Corruption (Aduwo et al., 2020), and also effect on the performance in Construction (Ibem et al., 2020) .This study seeks to address this vital gap by checking the staff of Public sector organizations in Abuja, Nigeria in order to find out the level to which E-procurement affects the success and performance of Organizations in public sector in Abuja, Nigeria' 1.2 Objectives of the study I To provide an insight on the perceived improvement in performance of public sector institutions by adopting Eprocurement.
ii To find the nature of relationship between public sector organizations and technological infrastructure iii To find the effect of organization size on the performance of public sector organizations iv To find the multiplying effect of top management attitude on the performance of public sector organizations.

Research Questions
The following research questions were raised and answered: i.
What are the perceived improvement in performance of Public Institutions by adopting Eprocurement? ii.
What is the nature of relationship between Public Sector Organisations and Technological Infrastructure? iii.
What is the effect of organization size on performance of public sector organization ? iv.
What are the multiplying effects of Top management attitude on the Performance of Public Sector Organizations in Nigeria? 2. Literature Review 2.1 E-procurement which is the use of information technology to creat a procurement process that gears to respond to difference in the environment is adopted by all industries and various kinds of organizations.The greatest use of E-procurement comes to the fore when it's application is completely integrated throughout the supply chain. Technological Infrastructure which is a set of information technology components that can be seen or not that is the hardware and software facilities of an organization is a critical tool in improving the performance of any organization.
Organizational size which is the number of employees at any given geographical location which is the manpower strength of an organisation is a vital tool in strategic management that helps in making a successful European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol. 13, No.13, 2021 organization.
Any organization is a reflection of its top management attitude. Top management attitude is the way or behaviour of the group of people who are responsible for establishing policies, guidelines and strategic objectives as well as providing leadership in an organization. Whatever they decide determines the success or not of an organization vis a vis its performance. E-procurement implementation success in the Public Sector is usually influenced by some critical factors. Despite government efforts through reforms for easy adoption of E-procurement, adopting it still remains a big challenge. Findings of research done by Cooper and Schindley (2003) on E-procurement revealed that Eprocurement encourageskeeping recordson all the process in bidding which in turn enhances improved transparency in processes and good accounting in public procurement organizations. The research further showed that E-procurement is tallied with better efficiency and enhanced purchasingprocesses.
E-procurement plan refer to the different models used to manage internet supply chain processes in an organization (Roman, 2013) . There are various softwares or online processes used to make organizations work better and to facilitate wise E-procurement practices. There are various e-procurement packages used all around the world.
Harelimana(2018) found out that E-procurement models leads to better restitution of customer demand, Improved purchase and supply compliance, improved purchasing capacity, reduced cost of inventory and better efficiency inventory management. The group showed the keys to E-procurement process cyclesuccess. They pointed out that E-procurement should not be seen as a strategy but a full plan. The organization must know what it spends on, the Organization must have a total E-procurement plan, the application of E-procurement begins by agreeing on theprocess and use of E-procurement must be led from up to bottom. The application of E-procurement must be decided by all and supported by other functional areas.

Theoretical Framework
Diffusion of innovation theory is the theory adopted by the study. It was postulated in 1962 by an American Economist called Everett Rogers. Diffusion of innovation theory is widely used in the area of technology spread and use. For Rogers "a technology is a design for involved action that reduces the unknown in the causeconsequences relationship involved in achieving a wanted outcomeSpread of new methods" (Sherry & Gibson, 2002) . For Rogers (2003) adoption is a decision of complete use of an innovation as the best way of action availableand refusal is a decision not to adopt an innovation. As expressed in this diffusion of innovation. Diffusion is seen as communicating a new course of action to people over a period of time. It involves weighing the advantages or disadvantages of taking a course of action. It postulates that there are different stages of innovation decision processes and they are knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. And there are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. The criticism of the study is that the technical factor is not the only factor to be considered in the spread of innovation. Other factors like economic , social, political and the general environment are important and are to be considered.

Empirical Review
Apart from process and cost as discussed by Matunga et al. (2013) lack of change in top management and enough training of staff makes adoption of E-procurement an herculean task. Other challenges have been epileptic network connection or unreliableinternetavailability in some areas and limited number of government agencies with ICT infrastructure and connectivity. Consequently organizations tend to selectively take up the use of E-procurement processes thus limiting its effect on overall Organizations performance.
A study was also done which revealed that sellers play a vital role in determining if organizations take part or notin E-procurement system. The attitude and ability of the supplier defines whether they participate in Eprocurement methods,processes or not. In the case of organizations,the new way of doing things in a transparent way and integrity required by the E-procurement system make old suppliers reluctant because they are set in their ways so they areagainst it. This is because the E-procurement processesdisrupts the old relationship between procuring body and sellers.

Methodology. 3.1 Sources of Data and Methods of Analysis:
The research design used in this study is descriptive cross sectional survey method aimed at establishing the effect of E-procurement on performance in public sector organizations in Nigeria.
Fifty (50) structured questionnaires were administered to staff of INEC, TETFUND and NBS spread across various departments of the Public Organizations all based in Abuja. This comprises of 44%(22 respondents) from INEC, 18% (9 respondents) from TETFUND and 38% (19 respondents) from NBS respectively. For successful investigation, this research work is based on descriptive statistics technique using frequency approach. The format of the Questionnaire is Likertscale which is a unidimensional scale used by researchers to collect European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol. 13, No.13, 2021 respondents' attitudes and opinion.The data analysis method adopted is the frequency analysis of Statistical package for the social sciences(SPSS), regression analysis which is a set of statistical processes for estimating the relationships between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables and Anova. Frequency analysis is a descriptive statistical method that expresses the number of times that an incident occurs of each response chosen by respondents.Anova is a statistical method in which the variation in a set of observations is divided into distinct components. The data used for the study is primary data and this is to show the relationship between the variables which is performance and E-procurement and frequency analysis was used to determine the relationship and impact of E-procurement on Performance in Public Organization using three MDAs in Abuja ( INEC, TETFUND and NBS).

Analysis of Data and interpretation of results.
This section deals with presentation and analysis of the data. Data was analysed by coding and frequency analysis, regression analysis and anova was used to determine results aiming at providing answers to the research questions and testing the set hypotheses.

Data Presentation, Analysis and Findings.
Background characteristics of respondent Respondents cut across various departments with varying grade levels and years of experience. 8% of them are from grade level 13 and above while majority (78%) are between grade level 8 -12. Further, 38% of the respondents have spent between 0-5 years in service, 44% are between 6-10 years, 4% range 11-15 years, 6% are (16)(17)(18)(19)(20) years and 4% have spent 20 years and above. Of all the respondents, 24% are from procurement department, 12% are from Admin and Human Capital, 8% from ICT while 34% are from other departments in their various organisations. The distribution was also not gender blind, 60% of our respondents were male while 40% were female. Educational qualification of respondents cuts across first and higher degrees; 64% of the respondents possess first degree or advanced diploma while 17% have master's degree and all respondents are from Public Organization.  First, respondents were asked whether their Organization uses E-procurement or not. Result from table 4.7 below shows that 62% (equivalent 31 people) confirmed that their organization use E-procurement while 36% (equivalent to 18 people) mentioned that their Organization was not using E-procurement. It was onlya respondent that was not sure whether his organization uses E-procurement or not. The result was very similar to how E-procurement is very suitable with the way these organizations do business with their partners (suppliers). Examining the compatibility of E-procurement with the organization's IT platform, 28% strongly agreed that using E-procurement fits well with their existing IT system, 54% only agreed, 10% neither agreed nor disagreed while 4% disagreed with the above statement. (see table 4.9 below). 39 Complexity characteristics These variables were trying to look at the flexibility of E-procurement with the employees, business partners as well as the existing IT platforms in the different organizations. Table 4.10 shows that 50 respondents that completed the questionnaires showed that 18% and 46% strongly agree and agreed respectivelythat E-procurement is easy to use for their employees. 28% neither agreed nor disagreed while 8% disagreed with the statement. Table 4.11 Do you agree using E-procurement is explicit to your business partners?  Table 4. 11 The table above shows if e-procurement is explicit to the organizations business partners. Table 4.11 examined if E-procurement concept is explicit to their respective business partners, 14% and 48% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that E-procurement concept is clear and understandable to their business partners, 32% neither agreed nor disagreed while 6% disagreed with the statement. Table 4.12 below shows that 16% and 60% strongly agreed and agreed respectively that "learning how to use additional e-procurement technology services" is easy for their employees, 20% neither agree or disagree while 4% (2 people) completely disagreed with the statement (See table 4.12 below). Technology infrastructure characteristics This is the section that evaluated Computer availability, connection to the National Fibre Optics and sufficiency of existing infrastructures that will enhance the use of E-procurement.   Table 4.13 above shows that 51.6% (26 people) confirmed that their organizations have connected to the National Fibre Optic for easy use of E-procurement, 29% (9 people) were not sure while 19.3% (6 people) said that their organizations have not connected to National Fibre Optic. Table 4.14 evaluated whether E-procurement fits well with the existing IT system, while 28% strongly agreed, 58% agreed, 10 % neither agree nor disagree, 4% disagreed and the remaining 4% strongly disagreed.
The table above shows if the existing information system fits well with e-procurement.

Perceived benefits characteristics
These are enquiries to examine the benefits of adoption of E-procurement in comparison to Cost.
Respondents were asked if adoption of E-procurement has reduced their firm's transaction cost by 50%? Table 4.14 below indicated that only 12% respondents strongly agreed with this statement, 24% agreed, 38% neither agree nor disagree, 18% disagreed with the statement. As regards improvement in data accuracy through adoption of E-procurement, 24% respondents strongly agreed, 42% agreed, 24% neither agree nor disagree while 2% disagreed.
18% strongly believed that adopting E-procurement has increased the installation and administrative costs, 38% neither agree nor disagree while 10% disagreed that installation and other administrative costs have increased through E-procurement adoption. Table 4.14 Do you agree that adoption of E-procurement has reduced your firm's transaction cost by 50%?  Table 4.14 The table above shows that adoption of e-procurement has reduced firm's transaction cost by 50%.

User involvement characteristics
The study attempted to gauge the buy-in of the employees in their various organizations.22% respondents strongly agreed, 40% agreed that E-procurement adoption has enabled their organizations to involve most of their employees in the procurement process, 32% neither agree nor disagree while 4% completely disagreed.
14% respondents strongly agreed, 48% agreed that E-procurement adoption has enabled employee effective participation in the procurement method to involve most of their employees in the procurement process, 26% neither agree nor disagree while 8% completely disagreed, 4% did not respond.

Relative advantage characteristics
Respondents were probed to evaluate the relationship of their business partners with their organizations, Efficiency and Effectiveness attributed to E-procurement adoption and whether there was value for money for this concept.
Significant percentage alluded to the enhancement of business partners relationship as 26% and 38% confirmed that E-procurement makes better their organization relationship with their business partners, 30% neither agree nor disagree, only 2% disagreed.
In a similar manner, 34% and 42% confirmed that E-procurement improves their efficiency and effectiveness, 16% neither agree nor disagree, only 6% disagreed.
24% and 54% confirmed that E-procurement will enable their organisations achieve value for money, 20% neither agree nor disagree, nobody disagreed with the statement.
Benefits characteristics of e-procurement Adopting E-procurement, it is expected that there should be reduction of paper work and errors which will translate to achieving more competitive bids, reducing ordering cost and cycle time. These parameters were equally examined.
Result showed that 44% respondents strongly agreed while 34% agreed that adoption of E-procurement led European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol. 13, No.13, 2021 to reduction of paper work in their Organization, 14% neither agree nor disagree and only 4% completely disagreed. 4% did not respond at all.
Further, 24% and 44% respondents respectively strongly agreed and agreed that their Organization were better in compliance and error reduction, 18% neither agree nor disagree, 6% disagreed while 8% did not respond.
63.6% agreed that E-procurement adopted achieved reduced ordering cost by higher percentage while 36.4% neither agree nor disagree.
Through the adoption of E-procurement, 16% respondents strongly agreed that their Organization achieved competitive bids, 42% also agreed with the statement while 32% neither agree nor disagree, only 10% did not respond.
The concept has also performed well in reducing the cycle time by more than 90% as we gathered that 22% of the respondents strongly agreed with the statement, 32% also agreed, 30% neither agreed nor disagree. 6% disagreed while 2% strongly disagreed, 8% did not respond. Correlation coefficient This is a quantity that measures the direction and the strength of relationship between two variables X and Y. It takes value between -1 and +1.   Table 4.18 is a model summary table that gives insight about the quality of the model fitted to the data. the correlation coefficient is 0.691indicating a strong positive linear correlation between the 'Value addition' and the 'explanatory variables'. R-square also known as coefficient of determinationand adjusted R-square measure the amount of variation in the dependent variable "Value addition" that was explained(accounted) for by the explanatory variables (Technological infrastructure, Organization size and Top management attitude). 0≤ Thus, from the table, 44% of the variation in "Value addition"was explained by the explanatory variables. This implies that the model is fairly effective in predicting the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The P-value is 0.000 ˂0.05 showing that the model is statistically significant.

Conclusion
The main objective was to evaluate the impact of E-procurement on the performance of Public Sector Organizations in Nigeria in particular INEC, TETFUND and NBS. This study was guided by the following straight Objectives: to ascertain the effectiveness of E-procurement in the Three MDAs, to evaluate the performance level of E-procurement in the MDAs and to find out the relationship between E-procurement and Performance in these specific MDAs. In order to achieve the above objectives, Questionnaires were administered to a group of 50 Respondents who are staff of INEC, TETFUND and NBS.
As indicated above in the different tables, among all the results provided there were only some issues that respondents were undecided on or disagreed on and the rest were agreed and strongly agreed. Therefore Eprocurement activities are generally effective and aids smooth running of Organizations . Secondly Eprocurement has helped in reducing the cost of doing business in the three MDAs. In addition researcher learnt that INEC, TETFUND and NBS have all experienced an improvement in their performance since the introduction of E-procurement. By the findings E-procurement has strong impact on the performance of the three MDAs.
From the result of the regression analysis, TMATT with a P value of 0.003 is statistically significant while other explanatory variables are not.We reject Ho3 and we do not reject Ho1 and Ho2.It is concluded that Top management attitude has significant impact on Organization performance.

Recommendations.
The findings gotten from this study hold important implications for all stakeholders like government, public institutions, non-government owned institutions and suppliers. The government could use the findings of this study to understand and monitor the use and spread of E-procurement in other MDAs since E-procurement is of global relevance all over the world.
Continuous focus should be on improving information technology infrastructure which is necessary to fully implement E-procurement in all MDAs.On public awareness since E-procurement is a topical issue the Bureau of Public Procurement and the Federal Government is recommended to keep sensitizing the general public on the importance of E-procurement. And embark on trainings on how to use the all encompassing software to be introduced even before it arrives into the country.

Areas of further research
Further researches are suggested to increase on the sample size and techniques in order to obtain a more representative of the population. E-procurement is a multi-dimensional concept; further research can consider the use of other E-procurement functions like E-sourcing, E-tendering, E-payment, E-transportation E-evaluation and E-negotiation. A larger number of questionnaire can be given out to staff of more Public sector organizations in Nigeria to get a more reliable analysis on the research.