FACTORS AFFECTING TO HINDER THE PERFORMANCE OF PROJECT RELATED PROCUREMENT PROCESS IN SABARAGAMUWA UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

Abstract

The term procurement has become very crucial in the contemporary world. Procurement is the act of making the right product or service available to the right person at the right time at the right price in the right place. Procurement implication can impact on the overall cost of carrying out the decision in any organization. However, the preliminary observations revealed that most of the government and semi-governmental organizations in Sri Lanka are experiencing poor performance in their procurement process and wasting lots of resources including time and public money. In this context, this study has been conducted to identify the factors affecting to hinder the performance of the procurement process in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL). The main purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting to hinder the performance of the procurement process in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and to provide recommendations to enhance the procurement practices in public procurement processes in Sri Lanka. This study is mainly based on the primary data which has been collected through in-depth interviews followed by a semi structured questionnaire. The sample size is 50 including Procurement officers, Administrative officers related to the procurement in the University, Project Coordinators and Activity Coordinators, Project Assistants, and other officers related to the projects which are going on within the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. Data has been collected using convenience and random sampling methods and analyzed descriptively. As the main findings of this study, it was revealed that lack of resources, lack of knowledge regarding government procurement process, lack of staff, poor coordination, deficiencies in the monitoring process, and bureaucracy as the factors affecting to hinder the performance of the procurement process in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. Further, recommendations for increasing the level of procurement practices and the way of increasing efficiency while eliminating delays has also been provided in each stage of procurement.