Transparent Tendering Process Regulation and its Influence on Service Delivery of Water Companies in Murang'a County

Abstract

Under public regulation, sound policies and practices in public procurement are among the key components of good excellent stewardship and governance. However, the procurement processes are accused of inefficiency, corruption, and undercutting costs in addition to secrecy, which results in significant resource waste. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the influence of public regulation on the service delivery of water companies in Murang’a County. The specific objective is to investigate the influence of transparent tendering on the service delivery of water companies in Murang’a County. A descriptive research design was applied to achieve the objectives of the study. The population of this study consisted of 240 employees working in the procurement department, heads of user department and tender committee members drawn from the five water companies in Murang’a County. Yamane’s formula was applied to arrive at a sample size of 150 respondents. The findings show that the coefficient of determination (R²) representing the proportion of variance in the dependent variable (Service Delivery) is explained by the independent variable (Transparent Tendering) where in this study, R² = 0.864, indicating that approximately 86.4% of the variance in Service Delivery can be explained by Transparent Tendering. The results of simple regression revealed that transparent tendering has a p-value = .000 and since the p-value is less than < 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected. It was then concluded that there is a significant relationship between transparent tendering and service delivery of water companies in Murang’a County. Based on the conclusions the study recommends that strengthening communication strategies and sensitization efforts before tender advertisement will help raise awareness among potential bidders and promote transparency by providing freely accessible procurement information to address the mixed opinions on stakeholder involvement.