Influence of Principals’ Exposure to Management Training on Their Compliance with Procurement Regulations in Public Secondary Schools in Embu County

Abstract

Public procurement has become an issue of public attention and debate, and has been subjected to reforms, restructuring, rules and regulations. Most of developing countries have undertaken strategies to reform their procurement system. Compliance with public procurement regulations in Kenya continue to be low in public entities despite efforts by the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) to put in place measures to improve compliance. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of Principals’ exposure to management training on their compliance with procurement regulations in Public Secondary Schools in Embu County. The philosophical foundation of the study was positivism, and a cross-sectional descriptive survey research design was adopted. The target population for the study was all the 132 public secondary schools in Embu County while a sample of 490 respondents was selected using stratified random sampling. The respondents included principals, deputy principals, bursars, members of procurement committee and suppliers. Primary data was collected using questionnaires which were pretested for reliability and validity to determine it’s suitability for use in the study. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and results presented using charts and tables. Inferential statistics, correlation, multiple regression analysis were used establish the nature and magnitude of the relationships between the variables and to test the hypothesized relationships. The study findings indicated that Principals’ exposure to management training influenced their compliance with procurement regulations in Public Secondary Schools in Embu County greatly. The study concluded that principal’s exposure to management training, management of technical experts, management of community and management of religious sponsors influences the compliances of procurement regulations in public secondary schools. The study recommends that there is need therefore for government and public institutions to lay emphasis on familiarization of the new procurement rules and regulations and to intensify continuous education among the procurement stakeholders in the public procurement process particularly at the secondary school level.

Key Words: Public Procurement, Exposure to Management Training, Compliance, Public Secondary Schools, Procurement Regulations

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/16-8-03

Publication date: July 31^st 2025