Competence and ethical behavior of people appointed to contract management post in local governments in Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to establish the impact that competence of staffs may have on the extent to which they behave ethically when managing execution of contracts in their control at local government level. A research was carried out to establish using cross sectional research design. Data was collected using self administered questionnaires covering 52 local governments in Uganda. A response rate of between 73% and 75% was realized with about 39 districts successfully returning the filled up questionnaires. Analysis was done using the SPSS package. Factor analysis was carried out to iron out tendencies of bias in the question items included in the data collection tool (questionnaire). Findings indicated that competence of a staff working in the capacity of contract manager in local governments in Uganda has a great influence on the way that person behaves in the ethical scale. The paper indicates that the more competent one becomes in handling contract management issues, the more ethical that person becomes in the contract management process.

Keywords: Competence, Ethical behaviour, Contract management