Effective management of procurement procedures in farm primary schools in Goromonzi South zone

Abstract

This study focused on the effective management of procurement procedures in farm primary schools in Goromonzi South Zone. Three research objectives which the study wanted to achieve were to assess the importance of having proper procurement procedures at school, to explain the stages to be followed in procuring goods and services at a farm school and to investigate some of the challenges that are faced by the procurement committee in procuring goods and services at farm school. The study used descriptive survey research design. Questionnaires and interviews were used as instruments to collect data in this study. The population in this study was composed of forty-one teachers, four school heads and four school development chairpersons. Purposive sampling was used to select heads and teachers while cluster sampling was used to select school development committee chairpersons. The sample for the study comprised ten teachers, three school heads and three school development committee chairpersons. The major findings for the study were, most teachers agreed that there are no effective procurement committees in farm primary schools, suppliers of goods and services in farm primary schools are not properly sourced, most school heads influence procurement decisions and teachers are not receiving in-service refresher courses on procurement due to lack of resources in farm schools. The major conclusions were procurement committees are not effective in farm primary schools, suppliers are not properly sourced as stipulated by policy in farm primary and farm primary schools are not offering procurement refresher courses to their teachers upon appointment in such committees due to lack of funds. The major recommendations were procurement committees in farm primary schools should be made effective through making policy which allow them to write termly reports which they must send to the district education offices so that the District Schools Inspector can supervise the heads who break the policies in time, the audit department should be funded by at least two percent of tuition fee paid by each learner so that it can be in a position to offer refresher courses to procurement members, there should be termly audits to check whether school heads are influencing procurement decisions and there should be a policy that allow school development chairperson to be members of procurement committee.