EFFECTS OF ETHICAL ISSUES ON PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN KENYA: A CASE OF KENYATTA NATIONAL REFERRAL HOSPITAL

Abstract

The study focused on analyzing the effects of ethical issues on procurement performance in ministry of health in Kenya. In addressing the latter, the research established the effect of conflict of interest and professionalism on procurement performance as the specific objectives of the study. Descriptive research design was used for the study and the questionnaire was the main data collection instrument, Slovin's formula was used to pick a sample of 74 respondents from a target population of 294 staff working in procurement and operations department at KNH. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis were used to analyze the gathered data. The quantitative data generated was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics feature in SPSS to generate information. It was notable that there existed a strong positive relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable. This indicated that the set of independent variables were important factors that needed to be enhanced to facilitate procurement performance in public hospitals in Kenya. Based on the research findings, the study concluded that ethical behavior can help improve procurement performance in the organizations. Though the health sector was striving hard to embrace and adhere to ethical behavior there were still issues of conflict of interest and lack of professionalism. The study recommended that the current phenomenon of poor procurement performance in the health sector to be reversed if the government and other stakeholders ensured that ethical behavior exercised through assessing conflict of interest and professionalism.