Procurement planning and materials management in public universities in Uganda. A case study of makerere university business school (MUBS)

Abstract

The study was about procurement planning and materials management in public universities in Uganda, with the case of MUBS. The study objectives were to: evaluate the effect of procurement plan preparation on materials management at MUBS, assess the effect of procurement plan implementation and materials management at MUBS and finally, to establish the relationship between procurC1ment plan evaluation and materials management at MUBS. The study adopted a case study approach, using cross sectional survey research design and adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and documentary review, from a sample of 140 respondents. The study findings revealed that procurement plan preparation positively affects materials management revealed at 0.622 (62.2%), there is a positive effect of procurement plan implementation on materials management confirmed at 0.500 (50.0%) and there is a positive significant relationship between procurement plan evaluation and materials management at MUBS which was confirmed at Pearson correlation coefficient of0.762**. The study recommended that: Public Universities should issue Standard Procurement Plan formats to all PDUs and budget call circular which requires AOs to prepare Annual Procurement Plans to ensure that the procurement budget is integrated with the approved expenditure programme of the entity; Public universities should also ensure that the core steps of procurement planning are managed exceptionally well, the core procurement planning practices are embedded in all procurement systems, the core departments are carefully involved in procurement planning and finally; The contracts committee should ensure that the tenders submitted are fully compliant with the special conditions outlined in the data sheet and ensuring that the evaluation and ranking of bidders is completed in a fully transparent manner without bias to any one bidder.