EFFECT OF COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC PROCUREMENT ACT 2007 ON CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS PERFORMANCE BY UNIVERSITIES NORTH CENTRAL STATES NIGERIA

Abstract

The study evaluates the effect of compliance with Public Procurement Act 2007 on Construction projects performance by Universities in North Central States, Nigeria, with a view to broadening the knowledge of the general public and the procurement regulatory authority with the findings on the level of compliance of Universities in the North Central to the tenant and principle of the public procurement act 2007. The Act has been in operation for more than a decade and must to be seen as a veritable instrument for a radical change for successful delivery of projects in the construction industry in Nigeria. The challenges among the procurement practitioners’’ has been greatly reduced through training, retraining and these has made the awareness of the Act to be widely accepted and practiced. It is almost becoming unrealistic to procure any works, goods and services without using the Act. Evaluating the effect of the PPA (2007) on project delivery is important to know the veracity of the implementation on procurement by Government agencies for their constitutional provision of infrastructure facilities to the generality of the public and in the training of the sill manpower needed for the country. Evaluating the effect of the Act on projects is important not only to the procurement practitioners who hope to benefit from the procurement activities of government but also to the government itself to be able to evaluate its performance and what needs to be done to ensure economic development and growth. The aim of this studies is to ascertained the effect of the Act on the provision of needed facilities for the smooth realization of the three cardinal objectives of a Universities education in Nigeria which is centered on teaching, research and community development. Data were collected through the administration of structured questionnaire and interview of the stakeholders.. The data collected were analyzed using relative importance index, kruskal-wallis H, factor analysis, mean item score and correlation matrix. the result of the analysis shows that the level of awareness is high and the effects on projects delivered is highly remarkable. The effect of compliance on projects delivery resulted to cost and time overrun due to delay in harmonization of retirements of funds by the Universities and TetFund. Equally the result of the findings revealed that the significant factors hindering the successful operations of the PPA (2007) are size and complexity of projects, knowledge of the procurement practitioners about the Act, Political interference by the executives, political patronage. The study concluded that the Act was highly in use by the Universities in the North Central States of Nigeria. That the procurement process should start early enough as soon as projects were identified and for the regulating authority to be empowered for monitoring purposes.