Mukabi Fredrick Ephraim Khaunya, Nyerere Joseph K., Barasa Peter Wawire
In this paper the authors focus to examine the influence of performance contracting on supply chain service deliver in Embu County, Republic of Kenya through a study of the views of staff in the department and sections of supply chain services. All targeted employees are under the Directorate of Public Procurement of The National Treasury in Embu County who usually develop their individual work plans and agree on targets based on the performance contract signed between the Director of Public Procurement and the Permanent Secretary, The National Treasury. A descriptive study was carried out with probabilistic sampling method using the simple random sampling technique and was used to select 28 respondents out of a target population of 92 officers in the County and sub County Headquarters. Semi structured questionnaires were administered by drop and pick method. The data collected was edited for accuracy to detect errors and omissions, coded and then tabulated after generation of frequencies. Content analysis was then done for open-ended questions and then data was summarized in a suitable format for entry. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics with the aid of Microsoft Excel 2007 Spreadsheet application. The results were then displayed in the form of Excel generated figures such as tables, bar graphs and pie charts to facilitate description and easy interpretation. The findings revealed that apart from respondents having difficulties in preparing individual work plans and deriving SMART targets from these work plans, performance contracting was generally well understood. It was concluded that the setting of performance targets, training and performance appraisal were associated with improvement in service delivery in the Supply Chain Services. The recommendations made were that the County Secretaries should ensure that all the employees in the Ministry are trained on the pertinent issues in the performance contracts so that every officer clearly understands their roles and how to develop their individual work plans and derive measurable targets. All officers whose training is agreed upon should be sponsored as agreed with their respective supervisors. The County Governments should adopt the performance contracting system in all their service operations to ensure accountability for results and improvement in service delivery. Further research should also be carried out in the other departments within Counties to improve the design of the performance contracts and preferably come out with County specific designs.
Performance Contracting; Supply Chain Services; County Governments; Performance Appraisal.