Impediments to procurement performance in the parastatal organizations of Tanzania

This study aimed to examine the factors that affect the procurement performance of Tanzania’s parastatal entities. It examined the impact of political interference and staff competency on procurement performance. The questionnaire was used to collect data from heads of departments from 93 state-owned organizations in the Dar es Salaam Region as part of an explanatory research approach. The sample of 258 respondents was randomly selected from the population of 712 heads of departments. However, 241 questionnaires were collected from the respondents. The data were descriptively evaluated to establish the mean and standard deviation. The data were compiled using frequency distribution tables before being analyzed using multiple regression analysis. This study shows that political interference has a negative influence on procurement performance, whereas staff competency has a positive impact on procurement performance. The study implied that political influence in the procurement process should be avoided to the greatest extent possible because of its adverse effects and that staff competency should be stressed to give staff members the new skills and competencies needed to solve procurement difficulties


Introduction
Public procurement is a prominent function within organizations.It plays a critical role in ensuring that organizations receive the resources they need to achieve their goals.The amount of money spent on public procurement is estimated to be more than 70% of most developing countries' annual budgets (Sama et al., 2021).Because of the large sums of money spent on public procurement, it has garnered the attention of practically all governments throughout the world, as well as other developing partners, to ensure that public funds are spent efficiently and that value for money is available (Odhiambo and Kamau, 2003).It has also enticed powerful people in society, such as politicians and businessmen to interfere in the procurement process in the hope of making extraordinary profits, which would ultimately influence its performance (Hui et al., 2011).
The involvement of many partners in the procurement process has raised major concerns about its performance (Kirai & Kwasira, 2016).Studies show that many procurement contracts are linked to corruption, poor quality or substandard goods and services, shoddy work, and low customer satisfaction (Gray, 2015;Matto, 2017).This has pushed governments to take a number of steps to guarantee that public procurement is successful and efficient (Fezekas & Blom, 2021).Governments have made a lot of reforms in the public procurement, like amendment of legal frameworks, capacity building for procurement experts, frequent conduct of procurement audits, and e-procurement system adaptation, among other things (Odhiambo & Kamau, 2003;Matto, 2017, Masoud et al., 2022).Unfortunately, despite these efforts, previous studies show that procurement performance is falling short of expectations and is major caused of many scandals in many parties of the world (Gray, 2015;Chikwere et al.,2019;Dávid-Barrett and Fazekas, 2020).
Studies show that many scandals which lead to misuse of public funds are associated with public procurement.For instance, in America, as revealed by Rendon and Rendon (2016), there was procurement fraud in the Ministry of Defense with construction projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, which caused loss not only to a lot of taxpayer funds but also human lives.According to the study, the contractor filed false invoices claiming the culvert denial systems had been installed when in fact they had not.Consequently, numerous American soldiers were killed and injured (Sopko, 2015).Additionally, as Dávid-Barrett and Fazekas (2020) discovered, corruption in the purchase of street lighting resulted in the loss of a significant amount of tax payer money in Hungary.According to the analysis, the bulbs were purchased for a price that was up to 56% more than the market price.Another example is the Clean Hands scandal in Italy that led to the missing of public funds (Sargiacomo, 2015).
In Africa, as depicted by Ladan-Baki (2020), the Arms Scandal in Nigeria has led to the loss of lives of young pilots due to the procurement of poor-quality aircraft.In Kenya, the Anglo-leasing cemetery and Triton Petroleum are among the major scandals whereby billions of shillings were lost through the procurement process (Kioko &Were 2014).In Tanzania, as revealed by Gray (2015) a lot of public funds which might be used to provide essential services to the public like road construction, water supply, and health services were missed in the Rada and Richmond saga.Through the analysis of these few cases, it shows that politicians at large interfered in the procurement process in one way or another (Kioko &Were 2014).Raymond (2004) revealed that numerous cabinet members and political parties get covert payments in public contracts, interfering with the procurement process.Studies show that politicians interfered in the procurement process in many ways, like: contractor award by ensuring that their affiliates were awarded the tenders; procurement planning; recruitment of procurement officers (Nuertey, 2018;Ameyaw et al.,2012).The United Republic of Tanzania, knowing the possibility and impact of politicians' interference in the procurement process, has a special clause in the Public Procurement Act, 2011 which hinders the non-concerned parties in the procurement process from participating in it and demands each organ within the procuring entity to work independently.Sect.40 of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) of 2011 require that Tender board, evaluation committee, Accounting officer and Procurement Management Unit and User department should work independently, Unfortunately, despite the existence of a clear guideline, incidents reported in the Controller Audit General (CAG) reports show that the interference by politicians and prominent figures in the organizations in the procurement process continue at an alarming rate in many parastatal organizations in Tanzania, (Gray 2015;CAG, 2019;CAG, 2020).
On the other hand, Picho (2017) revealed that some procurement malpractices are caused by unqualified procurement professionals, who undertake some decisions that derail the significantly positive outcomes for their organizations.Matto et al. (2021) argued that when procurement officers fail to select appropriate procurement methods, award tenders to incompetent contractors, or improperly manage the contract, the procuring entity will be unable to get value for money from the procurement.Picho (2017) concluded that human competence influences the implementation of procurement procedures in a diverse way.According to.Hamza et al (2016), the level of staff competence among the procurement practitioners is among the crucial determinants that affect the procurement performance in Ethiopia due to the reason that they are responsible for managing all procurement functions within the organizations.Therefore, their professional competence acts as an engine for the entire performance of the procurement function (PPA, 2011).Due to this importance, they must always act professionally and acquire new knowledge and abilities (Mahuwi and Panga, 2020).Additionally, Nzambu (2015) underlines that personnel must possess the essential competency to perform out procurement activities efficiently and that their competences have a significant impact on procurement performance.Lysons and Farrington (2016) argued that skilled procurement practitioners can get beyond obstacles to accomplish the intended corporate goals.
A number of different researchers across the world and Tanzania in particular have tried to address the problem of poor public procurement by unveiling the extent to which each factor leads to the problem (Kirai & Kwasira, 2016;Ezeanyim et al., 2020;Matto, 2017).Furthermore, it was claimed that this study, along with those of Dávid-Barrett and Fazekas (2020) and Boatemaa-Yeboah and Tamakloe (2019), was insufficient to explain how political influence and a lack of staff competence led to poor public procurement performance.Other studies were not conducted in Tanzania (Basheka, 2011;Hui et al., 2011;Sarawa and Mas'ud, 2019), and those that were conducted in Tanzania did not specifically address the extent to which political influence and procurement specialists' ineptitude affect procurement performance in parastatal organizations (Matto, 2017;Mrope, 2018), a gap that needs to be filled.Thus, this study had filled in the gap in the literature by investigating the impact of political interference and staff competency on procurement performance in Tanzanian parastatal organizations.
After the introduction, the study presents the section on literature reviews, which presents various works on the subject.The research approach and design, sampling techniques, and a general analysis of the study findings are all presented in the research and methodology section.Finally, the study presents the results in accordance with the study's objectives, discusses the study findings, draws conclusions, and suggests recommendations.

Literature Review Theoretical Review
This research is based on stakeholder theory and resource-based view theory.Stakeholder theory was proposed by Freeman in1984 who defined a stakeholder as any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of an organization's objectives, and identified four groups as stakeholders: suppliers, customers, investors, and employees.Friedman and Miles (2006) expanded the definition of stakeholder to include more types of stakeholders who may have an impact on the goals of an organization, such as the media, the general public, suppliers, government, regulators, political groups, trade associations, policymakers, and others.The stakeholder theory does not mandate that all stakeholders participate equally in all processes and decisions, according to Donaldson and Preston (1995).This implies that one type of stakeholder may participate in a given function to a much greater extent than other types of stakeholders.For instance, empirical research reveals that, in contrast to other stakeholders, politicians often meddle in the procurement process (Boatemaa-Yeboah & Tamakloe, 2019;Nuertey et al., 2018;Sandada & Kambarami, 2016).Due to the degree to which politicians are linked to procurement performance (Chikwere et al., 2019;Sarawa & Mas' ud, 2020), this study has chosen to use them as one type of stakeholder.
Another theory that is supported by this research is the Resource-Based View Theory (RBV), which was put forth by Coase in 1937.It emphasizes how crucial resources are to improving performance within organizations.According to RBV, organizations need distinctive resources in order to achieve distinctive, improved performance.Backman (2015) asserts that the resources within an organization can be informed of human, financial, physical, and even technological competencies that are likely to outperform others.Human resources, through their level of competence, are a critical component in enabling better performance of organizational practices (Appiah, 2010).Employees with high competence can use their creativity to improve the application of ethical procurement within the organization (Hitt, 2016).According to Helfat (2003), having well-trained employees on professional standards facilitates effective compliance with organizational and professional standards.The necessity of having a skilled procurement staff within the organization is the top priority because they play a crucial role in the success of the entire procurement process within the company (Lyson and Farrington, 2016).They are in charge of overseeing the entire procurement process.such as creating the procurement plan, choosing suppliers, and creating the tender and contract documents (PPR, 2013)

Political interference on procurement performance
Political interference can be defined as a situation when politicians and other government officials, attempt to impose or influence their will without following the proper administrative and project procedures or moral standards (Batalla et al., 2018).According to Hui et al. (2011), political interference occurs when powerful members of the community, such as political leaders, meddle in the procurement function for their own personal benefit.In developing countries as revealed by Akech (2005) one of the major impediments to procurement performance is the interference of politicians in the procurement process, where they intervene and influence the contract awards.Furthermore, the danger of being suspended or dismissed has scared public officials into following illegal politician commands, resulting in non-compliance and waste of public monies in several situations Chikwere et al., 2019;Nuertey, Owusu-Bempah et al., 2018).Studies show that one of the reasons that have attracted many stakeholders like politicians in the procurement process is the huge amount of money spent on it (Gray, 2915;Thai, 2005).
Politicians interfere in procurement in a variety of ways, including contract award, procurement planning, allocated budget, procurement staff employment, policy and regulation development, and so on (Boatemaa-Yeboah & Tamakloe 2019; Chikwere at el., 2019; Nuertey et al., 2018).Gray (2015) supports that politicians are much more attracted to major projects that consume a lot of funds.The study further shows to what extent politicians interfered in Tanzania's procurement process through the procurement of Rada and Richmond through corruption.Also, the procurement of election equipment for the 2007 elections in Kenya is a key reference point for how politicians interfered in the procurement process (Rono, 2013).The same thing happened in Uganda, where politicians interfered in the procurement process to facilitate the Commonwealth meeting, resulting in a large amount of public funds going missing (Muhumuza, 2016).
From a few of the cited scenarios on how political interference in the procurement process, in all cases we can agree that its interference, in one way or another, has a negative influence on the procurement process (Chikerwe et al., 2019;Hui et al., 2011).This is due to the fact that most of the awarded companies through political influence were incapable of undertaking the contracted assignments; the awarded companies normally lack expertise, experience, and required equipment and machinery, which finally led to the late completion of the assignment, delivered substandard goods, or high cost of the requirements (Matto et al., 2021;Doroftei, 2016).This observation was supported by many scholars who arguing that contracts given to political allies had a detrimental impact on the procurement process' value for money, which in turn had an impact on the availability of social services like better health care, education, and road infrastructure in many developing countries.(Ameyaw, et al., 2012;Chikwere et al., 2019).

Staff competence on procurement performance
Staff competence is a very important aspect of the overall performance of the organization.A person who is competent will have the necessary information and abilities to behave in a variety of scenarios (Aketch & Karanja, 2013).Boyatzis (2008) defined competency as a capacity, ability, or underlying characteristic of a person that is tangentially related to successful or exceptional performance.The term "competence" is used to describe the practical knowledge and abilities necessary to complete tasks expertly (Armstrong & Baron, 1995).According to Errigde and Mcllroy (2002) public procurement practitioners must balance three conflicting demands: satisfying commercial interests, whose main themes incorporate economy, efficiency, and effectiveness; satisfying regulatory interests, whose main themes include competitive market, openness, fairness, and compliance; and satisfying social interests, for whom the key themes incorporate interests of the public, workforce concerns, social inclusion, economic growth, and environmental policy.Organizations continually search for workers with the abilities needed to handle the vast range of tasks faced by procurement experts in order to meet these expectations Monczka et al., 1998).
The need for conformance and a value-for-money audit trail, severe repercussions of subpar performance, the contributes substantially of the procurement processes to organizational operations, and the large number of items and huge amounts of money spent on procurement, according to Leenders and Fearon (2002) are the five main justifications for an efficient procurement system.Furthermore, they underlined that in order to meet these standards, skilled procurement practitioners are crucial.Additionally, competence improves employees' performance by helping them to make wise judgments, collaborate effectively, and readily adapt to change, while also boosting productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and job satisfaction (Hamza et al., 2016).
Therefore, for procurement practitioners to be competent and equipped with new skills is a mandatory obligation for every procuring entity (Mahula & Panga, 2021).Skilled and competent procurement staff result in better procurement performance.In public procurement function, procurement practitioners play a critical role in the entire implementation of all procurement process within the organizations (PPA, 2011).They are supposed to manage all procurement functions.Thus, it plans the procurement process, procurement and contract documents, and liaises with the user department to prepare the specification of the requirement (PPA, 2011).Appiah (2010) established that human competence influences the implementation of procurement procedures in a diverse way.Lyson and Farrington (2016) argued that technical competence assists the procurement professional to adhere to the procurement procedure and practice despite the challenges and complexity encountered when executing the procurement function.The similar finding that correlates between non-compliance and incompetent employees is made by Chikwere et al., (2019).This explains why organizations set an allocated budget for providing training to their staff (Ezeanyim et al., 2020).As shown by previous studies, the provision of training is one of the aspects mandatories to update the practitioners with new skills and competence (Hamza et al., 2016;Mahula &Panga, 2021).Unfortunately, besides the importance of staff competence on procurement performance, evidence shows the level of competence for some of the procurement practitioners is very low.They do not understand their roles, standards to be achieved, and evaluation performance (Picho, 2017).Not only that, but also some organizations do not employ staff based on their skills and competence rather than due to friendship and nepotism (Hamza et al., 2016;Picho, 2017).

Procurement performance
The effectiveness and efficiency in procurement the commodities, services, and works that the organization needs are considered performance in the procurement process (Baily, Farmer, Crocker, Jessop, & Jones, 2010).The organization gains many advantages from an efficient procurement process, including lower costs, shorter lead times, department user satisfaction, and conformance with procurement regulations (Bolton, 2006).Due to its part in lowering the price of the goods and services the organization purchases, the procurement function does indeed have a direct impact on how well the organization performs.Any procurement process savings have an impact on the organization's turnovers, net income, efficiency, total expenses, and equity (Kinyanjui, 2012).Public procurement must be carefully managed if public services are to be effective and for commodities, services, and infrastructure to be of high quality (Lyson and Farrington, 2016).Many aspects, including employee competency, management support, the ability of procurement officers to conduct their duties free from political influence, and others, are linked to a properly managed procurement process (Mwihaki, 2018).

Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework is guided by three major elements, which are political interference, staff competence (independent variables), and procurement performance (a dependent variable).Based on the reviewed literature, public procurement performance is one of the overriding issues in many countries due to its importance and the huge amount of public funds spent on it (Sama et al., 2021).Studies revealed that in many parts of the world, the public procurement process's performance is not impressive as it is characterized by corruption, poor quality goods, late completion of projects, price overruns, and the like (Chikwere et al., 2019;Matto, 2017).Many factors have been associated with this scenario, among them being politicians' interference and staff competence (Hui et al., 2011;Hamza et al., 2016).Politicians interfere in the procurement process by ensuring that their companies or their allies are winning the tenders, or by influencing the procurement plan by directing at what time and place the procurement projects are to be executed so as to gain more popularity, or by influencing the employment of the procurement staff (Boatemaa-Yeboah &Tamakloe 2019; Chikwere et al.,2019;Nuertey et al., 2018).On the aspect of staff competence, the literature shows that competent and skilled procurement officers assist in making effective procurement.They are making good decisions in relation to proper selection of the procurement process, selection of the right supplier, proper formulation of the contract document, and proper management of the procurement process (Ezeanyim et al., 2020).It is believed that if the procurement function is undertaken by competent and skilled staff who observe the principles, rules, and regulations without any inference from the politicians, the value for money as well as compliance will be realized within the organization.

Research and Methodology
The study used an explanatory research approach to look at how dependent and independent variables related to one another.In the Dar es Salaam region, 93 parastatal organizations were examined.712 participants who were heads of departments at these parastatal organizations made up the study population.Using the simplified Yamane's Formula (1967) the sample size of 258 respondents were randomly selected.The frequency distribution tables were used to portray the data in a descriptive manner.Additionally, to determine whether previously identified components define a particular construct, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed.Reliability and construct validity were established at this point.Factor scores were calculated and made ready for use in multiple linear regression analysis for each stated construct.The multiple linear regression model's assumptions were verified before the model was run.These characteristics include residual normality, linearity, homoscedasticity, and the lack of multi -collinearity (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012).Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the data's reliability, and the outcomes for all three independent variables were over 0.80, exceeding the necessary reliability threshold of 0.7 (Sekaran & Bougie, 2009).Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett's Test were used to assess the sample suitability of the data.The VIF for the variables is less than 5, which is considered acceptable (Saunders et al., 2012).for political interference (=3.194), employee competence (=3.075), and procurement performance (=2.708), in that order.The following describes the model of multiple regression utilized in this study: Y = α + ß1Ӽ1 + ß2Ӽ2 + ß3Ӽ3 + Ɛ. Where: Y = Procurement performance; α = Constant of Regression; ß = Beta Coefficients; Ӽ1 =Political interference; Ӽ2 = Staff competence and Ɛ = Error of Regression.

The influence of Political Interference on Procurement Performance
In order to determine the degree upon which political interference affects procurement performance in parastatal organizations, participants were asked to assess their agreement with a number of claims.Table 1 displays the averages and standard deviation of the replies; The results show that although all of the items had a mean score of 2.2 (SD = 1), Political interference accelerated the creation of procurement policy had the highest mean score of 2.33 (SD = 1.13) and Political intervention exists in the execution of the procurement project and politicians meddle in the process of choosing suppliers and contractors had the lowest mean score of 2.22.
(SD 1.04).The mean score was, on average, below average, indicating that respondents disagreed with all statements.This finding is consistent with Chekerwe et al. ( 2019) finding that political interference in the employment of procurement officers and in the awarding of the procurement contracts.Nuertey et al. (2018) demonstrated the same thing, asserting that political interference influences procurement through supplier or contractor selection.Politicians interfere with contract awarding by awarding contracts to their own companies or friends.This has a significant impact on procurement performance, as the majority of the time, the companies awarded are incapable.As a result, they fall short of completing the project on time.Additionally, these findings corroborate Boatemaa-Yeboah and Tamakloe's (2019) assertion that political interference has a detrimental effect on procurement

Staff Competence
Political interference Procurement Performance performance.Additionally, they confirmed that politicians interfered with procurement plans during contract awarding.They preferred that the contracts be implemented nearly simultaneously with the election period in order to garner additional votes from their voters.

The influence of on Staff competence on procurement performance
To measure how much staff competency affects the effectiveness of procurement in parastatal enterprises, the respondents were asked to rate their degree of agreement on some statements.Table 2 displays the averages and the standard deviation of the responses.The results show that all items had a mean score of 3.3 (SD = 0.8) on average, with the advancement of procurement staff with the highest mean score of 3.39.However, procurement staff had the needed practical competency, procurement staff had the necessary experience, and procurement staff responded to changes in job requirements, all of which had mean scores that were very similar with little variation in standard deviation.With an average mean score of 3.3, the respondents felt that staff competency has a positive impact on procurement performance.The results support those of Ezinwa et al. ( 2020) who found that staff expertise had a direct bearing on the organization's procurement performance.They went on to say that skilled employees can solve procurement issues, whereas incompetent employees contribute to the organization's poor performance.These findings are also corroborated by Odero and Ayoub (2019) who revealed that staff competence affects the organization's procurement performance.Furthermore, these results are in line with those of Kioko and Were (2014) who found that staff expertise significantly affects the success of public procurement function.The findings corroborated Nzambu's (2015) findings, which demonstrated that workers must have the necessary expertise and experience to perform procurement duties.In a similar spirit, Mwihaki (2018) argued that knowledgeable employees may overcome procurement obstacles and achieve performance targets even when resources are short.

Procurement Performance
Table 3 shows the means and standard deviations of grading parastatal entities' procurement performance at the period of the study.The procured goods are free from damage 1 5 3.41 1.005 The procurement process save money 1 5 3.4 1.099 To assess procurement performance, five distinct criteria were employed.These factors were quantified using a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. Each item was scored from 1 to 5. As indicated in Table 6, all categories earned the same mean score of 3.4 (SD = 1.1), with the exception of efficient goods, which received a highest mean score of 3.53 (SD = 1.029) and user departments complaints, which received a lowest mean score of 3.32 (SD = 1.104).Kirai and Kwasira (2016) on the other hand, made a contrasting assessment, contending that the organization receives low-quality commodities and that the procurement function was inefficient in terms of costsaving measures.

ANOVA F test
The ANOVA F test was performed to evaluate overall model fit in order to determine whether it passes the necessary thresholds on the statistical criteria as shown in table 4.  4 demonstrates that the overall model fit is sufficient because the p-value for the regression model F test is less than the critical p-value (0.05) at the confidence level of 95%.The model's conclusion that political interference, staff competency, and independent variables together predict procurement performance is therefore very significant.

Regression Model
Table 5 shows the summary findings from the regression model.The findings showed that the R square was 63%, indicating that staff competency and political interference have contributed to about 63% of the change in procurement performance at parastatal organizations.The remaining 37.0% difference in procurement performance may be accounted for by additional factors that the model did not include.

Regression model Results
The regression model results are shown in table 6.The results show that political interference had a coefficient of -0.46 (p-value = 0.00).This translates to a 46 percent decline in procurement performance in parastatal organizations for every unit increase in political interference.Additionally, the coefficient for employee competency is 0.709 (p-value = 0.00).This translates into a 70.9 percent increase in procurement performance for every unit increase in staff competency.In parastatal organizations, the political interference had a strong negative influence on procurement performance, whereas employee competency had a significant positive impact.The provided regression equation summarizes this.

Conclusion
The main objective of the study was to assess the factors that affect the procurement performance of parastatal organizations in order to ascertain how much political interference and staff competency affect that performance and, eventually, to propose solutions to the issue.Although a number of conclusions have been reached, it is abundantly evident that obtaining commodities, works, or services is the main priority in public procurement.However, many of the parastatal organizations have not been able to attain this success.Several suggestions are made as a way of resolving the identified weakness based on the findings attained.Firstly, the top management of the parastatal organizations should have a special capacity building program for their procurement practitioners to ensure that they are well equipped with new skills and competence to make sure that the target objectives of the organization in relation to procurement are achieved.Secondly, the management of the parastatal organization should ensure that the politicians and other influential people in their society do not get a chance to intervene the procurement function.The management should ensure that the procurement practitioners adhere to procurement rules, regulations, and guidelines when executing the procurement function.
Finally, the study's limitation must be acknowledged, which can be used as a future research direction.This study only focused on public sector by examined the influence of two factors on procurement performance.Therefore, the study suggested that other researchers may assess other factors which influence the procurement processes in the public sector or use the same factors in the private sector whereby its procurement procedures differ from government sector procurement for validating the findings.

Table 1 :
Political Interference on Procurement Performance

Table 2 :
Staff Competence on Procurement Performance

Table 3 :
Procurement Performance

Table 5 :
Model summary

Table 6 :
Regression Model Result