Abstract

Contract management has been of major concern in many procuring entities over service delivery and lack of value for money in implementation of many contracts. This study aimed at assessing the extent to which the contract management contribute to the Purchasing performance in Rwanda Energy Group as a selected procuring entity. The Study aimed at achieving the following specific objectives; to examine the effect of compliance with contract conditions on Purchasing performance, to establish the effect of contract documentation on Purchasing performance, to find out the effect of contract cost management on purchasing performance and to examine the effect of contract monitoring on Purchasing performance in the procuring entities. The research survey design was used for this particular study with the population of 66 respondents, a census was used. Primary data was collected using a reliable and validated questionnaire. The researcher adopted descriptive survey research design using both qualitative and quantitative research paradigms. The Data Collection Instrument was questionnaire that was self-administered with the help of research assistants. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics namely Pearson Product Moment Correlation and T-test and was presented by use of tables. The results from the survey show that there is a significant relationship between compliance of contract conditions and terms with purchasing performance as evidenced by the P-value of 0.000 which is less than 5% significant level. The Phi-value of 0.814 means that compliance to contract terms and conditions contribute 81.4% on the Purchasing performance. The results from the survey as indicated by the Pearson Chi- Square test show there is a significant relationship between contract documentation and purchasing performance as evidenced by the P – value of 0.000 which is below 5%. The results from the survey show that there is a strong relationship between contract management and Purchasing performance as indicated by R-square and adjusted R-square of 0.677 and 0.592 respectively. Furthermore, the results revealed that there is a positive relationship between cost management, contract monitoring and purchasing performance. The researcher concluded that contract management is a very important variable in enhancing Purchasing performance. The researcher recommends that procuring entities should ensure that they abide to the contract conditions and terms, prepare and maintain proper contract documents, establish contract cost control policies and monitor the contract. The study has proved the role of aspects pointed out in the contract theory in enhancing the effectiveness of procurement process and increasing the entity performance.