Abstract

Regardless of the effort by the governments of developing countries, like Rwanda and development partners like World Bank to improve performance of the procurement function, public procurement is still marred by shoddy works, poor quality goods and services. Failure to implement or delayed implementation of recommended performance standards has resulted in unnecessarily high operation costs, uncoordinated business activities, and failure to attract and retain experienced and skilled personnel in the procurement positions, thus affecting the function’s performance. Therefore, the general objective of this study was to analyze the effect of contract management on the performance of procuring and disposing entities in local government in Rwanda. The study’s specific objectives include: to establish the effect of resources allocation on the performance of procuring and disposing of Kicukiro district; to examine the effect of staff competence on the performance of procuring and disposing of Kicukiro district; and to analyze the effect of control and risk management on the performance of procuring and disposing of Kicukiro district. This study provides decision makers with the valuable information to take intervention programs to achieve greater contract management towards procuring and disposing performance. The study adopted both descriptive and correlative research designs. It adopted a number of data collection instruments including questionnaires, interview and documentary review. Questionnaires were distributed to 103respondents in Kicukiro district though 5 respondents didn’t return their questionnaires; and an interview was held with the management. With the help of SPSS, Spearman test was used to define the nature and magnitude of the relationship between the study variables. Findings revealed that 88.8% of the respondents strongly agreed that all significant materials to be delivered by the client are identified though 24.5% disagreed on the issue of ensuring that the planned resources are procured on time; Secondly, 82.7% strongly agreed that there’s budget for the training of the fthough 34.7% disagreed that the procurement officers follow the available procurement guidelines. Lastly, research results revealed that 96.9% strongly agreed that there are enough resources provided for the control and risk management process though 38.8% disagreed about the proper internal control processes. In addition, a spearman test results 0.004 as a P-Values which explains that there was a strong, positive monotonic correlation between contract  management and the performance of the procuring and disposing entities in Kicukiro district. The findings are in line with the poor performance in the district. In order to ensure performance of procuring and disposing, there must be effective contract management. Hence, the researcher concluded that the above must have attributed to lack of proper procurement practices hence poor performance of the district. The top management should rely on the use of e-procurement. Proper internal control processes should be made a culture by the responsible personnel at the district. Officials who delay procurement activities and processes should also be handled individually and be punished.