Thesis:

Public procurement practices and public procurement price Variance in technical and vocational education training Institutions in Nairobi metropolitan area

Public procurement accounts for a huge percentage of government expenditure of any nation. This expenditure. This huge outlay of government expenditure is necessary in the provision of services and infrastructure, as well as actualizing social economic development, including supporting vulnerable groups in the economy such as small and micro enterprises. In Kenya, as in other developing Nations, that often depend on donor aid and expensive loans to finance public expenditure, the achievement of these objectives is however curtailed by procurement inefficiency that often manifest as overpricing; resulting in loss of huge sums of expenditure that would have otherwise propelled development objectives-such as education development. It is on this background that this study sought to examine the effect of public procurement management practices on public procurement price variance in TVET institutions in Nairobi. The study was guided by the Resource based view, institutional theory and the Transaction Cost Economic Theories. The study, adopting a descriptive research design, collected data from all the 34 TVETs in Nairobi, and conduct multiple linear regression analysis to examine the statistical significance of the public procurement management practices. This study investigated the effect of public procurement practices—procurement planning, procurement audits, open contracting, and competitive bidding—on procurement price variance in public TVET institutions within the Nairobi Metropolitan Area. Data were collected through structured questionnaires targeting procurement managers, with a high response rate of 82%. The results reveal systemic overpricing, with average price variances as high as 268%, underscoring inefficiencies in procurement systems. The study provides compelling evidence linking poor procurement practices to increased price variance. Procurement planning was found to be inconsistently applied, with up to 26% of procurements occurring outside approved plans. These deviations were statistically linked to a 4.396% increase in price variance per percentage increase in unplanned procurement, highlighting the cost implications of reactive, unstructured procurement. Similarly, limited and untimely procurement audits were found to diminish oversight, with institutions conducting fewer than three audits per procurement cycle experiencing higher price variances. Notably, each additional audit correlated with an 18.647% reduction in price variance, emphasizing the critical role of audits in controlling costs. Open contracting, although legally mandated, remains underutilized; most institutions disclosed less than 20% of procurement data publicly. Regression analysis confirmed that increased transparency significantly reduces overpricing. Competitive bidding, though widely adopted, is undermined by persistent use of non-competitive methods, which contribute to inflated prices. The study concludes that enhanced planning, rigorous auditing, full transparency through open contracting, and stricter adherence to competitive bidding are essential to reducing price variance and safeguarding public funds.