FACTORS AFFECTING QUALITY SERVICE DELIVERY IN STATE CORPORATIONS IN KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL CEREALS AND PRODUCE BOARD
Abstract
Quality of service delivery at national cereals and produce board, a state corporation Which is charged with a critical and an important responsibility and function of Procurement, storage, maintenance and distribution of famine relief food to deficit areas., maintenance of strategic grain reserve (SGR) stock on behalf of the government to be used for Food security among many other farm inputs like procurement and supply of subsidized Fertilizer, has raised public concern due to farmers outcry, and demonstrations arising from Frequent delays in procurement, supply, payments and delivery of other essential services and farm products to the general public and in particularly to the vulnerable farmers who are there main client. The ultimate effects of poor service delivery has led to many farmers abandoning the Production of stable foods like maize, wheat, beans etc in this country hence reduced food Production .This has prompted the study of factors affecting quality service in a state Corporation in Kenya with reference to national cereals and produce board. The key variables were looked at in the study were; rapid result initiative, ICT reforms (IT), performance Contract and business ethics. This study adopted a case study approach with the main objective of the study being to examine the factors affecting quality service delivery at NCPB. To achieve this objective the Researcher employed descriptive research design and used questionnaires to collect data from the respondents. The target population of this study was 235 staff working at national Cereal and Produce Board Headquarters in Nairobi.50% of the target population i.e. 118 respondents was selected as the sample size using stratified random sampling. Increasing sample size to between 30 to 50% is justified to account for lost and incorporative subjects and especially if the researcher contemplates mailing the questionnaires Salkind (2012). The collected data was then coded to enable the responses to be grouped into various categories. Data was grouped into frequency distribution tables to indicate variable values and number of occurrences in terms of frequency. The data was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively, Tables and other graphical presentations such as bar charts, histogram, grouped frequency distributions and pie charts as appropriate were used to present the data collected for ease of understanding and analysis. Multiple regression analysis was also used, using SPSS (statistical package for social sciences) version 21. All factors which were considered to influence the quality of the service delivery in public corporation were seen to be significant factors as their mean scores were all above the mean score of 3. This was also confirmed by the multiple regression analysis where the levels of significant were less than 0.05 for all the factors.
The study recommends that state corporations should adopt rapid result initiatives as a way of improving quality service delivery. It should also embrace ICT reforms in their efforts to improve the service quality. The corporations should adopt the highest level of code of Conduct in order to serve as examples to others and improve on transparency and accountability. Finally, the study recommends that the state corporations should adopt Management style which allows employees to participate in decisions making especially in Areas affecting the performance in service delivery.
Key Words: Procurement, Service Delivery, Rapid Results, Public Concerns, State Corporation
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v1i2.18
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