Contract Management and Service Delivery in the Roads Sector in Mbale City, Uganda

Abstract

Although the Local Government procurement regulation 120 of 2006 stipulates the need to ensure smooth implementation of the contract, the road sector in Mbale Municipality reflects poor performance and general ineffective road service delivery. The study therefore set out to establish the role of contract management in influencing service delivery in the Roads sector in Mbale City. The study was guided by three specific objectives: (1) To assess the effect of contract administration on service delivery in the roads sector in (2) to examine the effect of relationship management on service delivery in the roads sector and (3) to analyze the effect of contract monitoring on service delivery in the roads sector in Mbale City. The study adopted descriptive study design and a sample of 108 respondents who included the contract and evaluation committees, the politicians, technical Local government staff and contractor from Industrial and Northern division was determined using Krejcie and Morgan’s table. Simple random and census sampling techniques were used to select the study respondents. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data. Quantitative data from questionnaires was analyzed using SPSS version 20 and interpretation of data was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data from interviews was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings show that for contract administration and service delivery R2 = .040 and the Sig = .015 < .05; for relationship management and service delivery R2 = .152 and the Sig = .000 < .05; and for contract monitoring, R2 = .121 and the Sig = .000 < .05. The study concluded that there was a weak significant effect of contract administration of service delivery in the road sector; a strong significant effect of relationship management on service delivery in the road sector and a strong significant effect of contract monitoring on service delivery in the road sector in Mbale city. This study recommends review of the road contract management policy where strategies of public engagement should be emphasized in the procurement and contract management process. In addition, the Ministry of Local government and Mbale City in particular should sensitize the public about their roles in the contract management process in addition to putting in place mechanisms of ensuring feedback from the public and its utilization about the performance of roads. Further research is also recommended on the role of community engagement in enhancing the performance of the road sector.