Public Procurement and Associated Relevant Elements for a Habitable Public Domain

Abstract

Public procurement remains a critical component of government undertakings because of the avenue it provides to acquire relevant resources to address various concerns of various segments of the population in various governance arrangements. The centrality of public procurement to governance is evidenced by enormous financial resources committed by developed and developing countries annually to meet various needs and expectations of the population. As a professional field, public procurement is defined by some associated elements and various scholars have examined such elements from systems’ perspective among others. One additional element which is worthy of attention and hereby the focus of this paper is professional procurement competency elements. This study uses dataset from the Universal Public Procurement Certification Council [UPPCC] survey to examine the likely determinant elements of public procurement based on multivariate analysis, specifically, exploratory factor analysis using Varimax with Kaiser normalization, and multiple linear regression. The analysis attests to multidimensionality of public procurement with strategic procurement planning; contract administration; procurement administration; supply management; sourcing; and negotiation process as key determinant elements. These key determinant elements converge into three clusters and further convey very critical, important, and necessary expectations for public procurement regardless of the locale. The study highlights the multifaceted and interwoven nature of public procurement and draws implications for theory, praxis and policy.

Keywords: public procurement, purchasing, acquisition, professional procurement, procurement competency elements, contract management.