Abstract:

Quality service delivery is a precondition of Good governance. Corruption retards quality services and this has been prevailing in public procurement process in Uganda. The purpose of the study is to identify the significant causes of corruption in public procurement system of Uganda. The focus of analysis was to answer the research question: what are the major causes of procurement corruption, what are the consequences of procurement corruption on quality service delivery and be able to suggest remedial ways of reducing procurement corruption in the public sector. The method of data collection was through customized questionnaire which covered both quantitative and qualitative information. There are several state laws and regulations on corruption and those who have been found guilty of corruption have been named and also exposed in public but corruption has remained high. It was found that Violation of Procurement Procedures, Use of High Ranking Officers to influence decisions, Influence Peddling during bid evaluation, Bribery of Procurement Officers and Use of gifts to get contracts are the major causes of public procurement corruption to deliver the quality services in Uganda. The key consequences of procurement corruption on service delivery were noted as follows; corruption affects the quality of services offered to the citizens, corruption diverts Government revenues, corruption affects the economic growth of the Country, corruption leads to loss of confidence in public officials and corruption breeds impunity and dilutes public. It can be concluded that making guilty officers to refund, improvement in accountability and Transparency, Strong and independent Judiciary, revision of laws and acts on procurement and inception of E-procurement systems might be the measures to be taken to eradicate public procurement corruption in order to provide optimum service delivery which would ultimately accelerate the pace to uplift the Uganda to a middle income country as per the agenda 2040.

Keywords: Corruption, Quality service delivery, good governance.

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