Factors Affecting Procurement of Government Vehicles: Case of Mechanical and Transport Department, Ministry of Roads

Abstract

There are many problems affecting the acquisition of vehicles and equipment in the Government transport sector. Some of these problems are similar to those encountered in large complex projects in the commercial sector, and others match those involved in the provision of other public services, but major projects face an exceptionally extensive and difficult array of problems. There are no known local or international studies on technical factors considered in acquisition of vehicles and equipments. The purpose of the study was to establish the technical factors considered in acquisition of Government vehicles, plant and equipment at Ministry of Roads. Mechanical and Transport Department in Kenya. The main focus of this study is quantitative. However some qualitative approaches were used in order to gain a better understanding and possibly enable a better and more insightful interpretation of the results from the quantitative study. This research study adopted a descriptive approach. The descriptive design deems appropriate because the main interest was to establish the relationship and analyze how the technical factors support matters under analysis in one organization. The study targeted 400 respondents who are directly involved with the control and maintenance of vehicle and equipment at the Ministry. The study adopted stratified proportionate random sampling technique to produce estimates of overall population parameters. From each stratum the study used simple random sampling to select 15% of 400 possible respondents to give a 60 respondent profile. The researcher used a questionnaire as the data collection tool to collect views from the respondents on technical factors affecting successful procurement of vehicles and equipment. Quantitative data collected using questionnaires was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Content analysis was used to analyze data collected from the open ended questions that was of qualitative nature. The results showed that maintenance cost, fuel consumption, after sales backup and durability are key factors which affect procurement of vehicles, plant and equipment at the Ministry of Roads, Mechanical and Transport Department. It is recommended that future studies should also cover private sector.