Public procurement process and service delivery in public organisations in South Sudan: a case study of the National Revenue Authority (NRA).

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between public procurement process and service delivery in public organisations in South Sudan while focusing on National Revenue Authority (NRA). The study was guided by the following: to examine how procurement specifications are developed in the Republic of South Sudan by the National Revenue Authority (NRA); to examine the process of Supplier Solicitation used in National Revenue Authority; to examine how Bid are evaluated in the National Revenue Authority. The study revealed that, there are poor specifications criteria followed since it does not reflect the nature of procurement requirements in the National Revenue Authority, the procurement system does not integrate the users department in the procurement cycle which tent to compromise the quality of the service delivery, NRA lacks clear information on the fitness for purpose or use, linking quality to product satisfaction and dissatisfaction when describing the product. The study shows NRA lack of clear supplier solicitation process since the entity does not advertise all procurement requirements, lack clear procurement plans and schedules, adopts unfair procurement methods, lack official communication (indicating transparency issues), procurement procedures does not favor local providers/contractors/ suppliers for all its procurements (lack of domestic preferences). The study further reveals that, NRA does not have well publicized public procurement rules and regulation known to the public, the top Government Procurement Authority supposedly guided by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act (PPDAA), 2018; do not often inspect NRA, bidders’ competencies, skills, experiences, knowledge and capacity; are not evaluated before considering them for prequalification and hence contributing to poor service delivery within the NRA Procurement and Disposal Entity (PDE).