GREEN PROCUREMENT AND SERVICE DELIVERY OF COUNTY GOVERNMENTS

IN WESTERN REGION, KENYA

Mr. Kennedy Wandera Walubengo1

1
Department of Business Administration and Management Sciences, Masinde Muliro University
of Science and Technology, Kenya.
1
wanderakennedy@[Link] Phone:0112919184

ABSTRACT
The framers of the Public Procurement Law envisaged to streamline how public procurement
should be conducted in order to realize value for money in public procuring entities. The primary
objective of the research thus was to determine the effect of green procurement on service
delivery of County Governments in Western Region, Kenya. The study adopted a positivist
research approach and was informed by ecological modernization theory. The study was
conducted in Western Region, Kenya in the Counties of Kakamega, Busia, Vihiga, and
Bungoma. The study's target population of 228 officials was broken down into chief officers,
directors, finance officers, and procurement officers. The study selected 174 participants as its
sample. Primary data was gathered through interview schedules and a questionnaire. A pilot
study was carried out to test for validity and reliability. The data analysis made use of both
descriptive and inferential statistics. SPSS version 26 was used to analyse quantitative data while
qualitative data was analysed thematically alongside study objectives. Green procurement was
found to be a significant predictor of service delivery in County Governments. Specifically the
study's findings showed that Green Procurement explains 23% of variation in service delivery of
County Governments in western Kenya Region. Green Procurement had unstandardized
regression value of 0.368. This suggested that County Governments in the Western Region,
Kenya will boost the delivery of services by 36.8% for each additional unit in green
procurement. The study came to the conclusion that there is need for the County Governments to
ensure legislation, enforcement and adherence to environmental laws and policies.

KEYWORDS: Green Procurement, Public Procurement Law, Service Delivery and County
Governments.
1. Introduction
The Effects of environmentally friendly supply chain administration strategies on
environmental success of Vietnamese construction material manufacturing companies
was studied by (Lea, 2019). The results of the study showed that while environmentally
friendly purchases had a favorable effect on social and economic efficiency it did not
have an influence on the environment's performance, green design and environmentally
friendly production. Guo, Sarpong, and Antwi (2019) results of their research showed
that how well purchasers actually applied their knowledge was more important for
changing their behavior than whether or not they understood, for example, regulations,
tools, and processes.
Njoroge, Mburu, and Getuno (2019) defined green procurement as an initiative of
purchasing that aims to ensure that materials or products purchased meet environmental
goals established by the purchasing organisation. Examples of such environmental goals
include reducing resource waste, promoting reuse, recycling, resource reduction, and
material substitution. Green procurement (or sustainable procurement), in the opinion of
Chogo and Kitheka (2019), is based on the context of sustainability, decisions which
maintain proper ecological, culture, and economic stability to ensure prolonged
Organisational performance. Local purchasing, environmental friendly packing, reverse
logistics, and Information Communication Technology adoption were used to gauge
green procurement. Nyaboke (2018) claim that "green procurement," previously
recognized as "affirmative procurement," refers to the buying of goods and services in
line with more than one recognized "green" public purchasing and preference
programmes.

2. Literature Review
In accordance with Shilungu and Mironga (2019), county governments' procurement
departments should make sure that just qualified environmentally friendly providers are
approved to supply environmentally friendly commodities and service within the county
in order to boost sustainable purchasing operations. In addition, it was claimed that all
county governments have to strictly enforce environmentally friendly purchasing laws in
order to guarantee safeguarding of the environment and biodiversity.
Alshura and Awadeh (2016) state that picking environmentally friendly vendors involves
selecting those whose products or services are ecologically sensitive. They assert that this
results in superior price savings, high-quality goods, and customer support for an
environmentally conscious reputation, assuring successful green procurement.
According to Omoruyi (2019), creating a system for managing the environment that is
responsive towards both economic maximization and environmental advantages is the
underlying justification behind the need and importance for environmentally friendly
purchasing. That businesses must adhere to ecological rules in their operations to protect
the environment. Deterioration of the environment might be caused in part by the absence
of defined environmental legislation. He continued by stating that waste elimination is
the goal of environmentally friendly procurement, and as a result, strategic measures are
developed to assure effectiveness and reduce costs.
 According to Mangula (2019), the government has the purchasing power to facilitate the
achievement of policy objectives which can enable preservation of ecology through
persuading environmental friendly buying.

Figure 2.1: Conceptual framework

Independent variable Dependent variable

Green Procurement
 Green supplier selection Service delivery
 Environmental management laws  Supplier lead times
 Green disposal  Transparency
 Reverse logistics  Cost reduction
 Supplier reliability

Source: Adapted from reviewed literature by the researcher (2023)

3. Methodology
3.1 Materials
The main objective of the study was to examine the effects of green procurement on service
delivery of County Governments in Western Kenya Region. The hypothesis of the study
stated that, H01 Adoption of green procurement has no statistical significant effect on service
delivery of County Governments in Western Kenya Region.
3.2. Methods
Explanatory research method was utilized in research that looks at cause effect association.
The method precast that there will be a systematic collection of data in a standardized
manner from a known population or representative (Mugenda & Mugenda, 2015). The scope
of the study was made up of County Governments in Western Kenya Region which is
Bungoma, Kakamega, Busia and Vihiga. The target population was 228 officers obtained
from Chief Officers, Directors, Finance officers and Procurement officers. Stratified random
sampling was utilized in coming up with a representative sample of 174 respondents working
in those Counties. The research gathered quantitative data through self- administered
questionnaire while qualitative data was collected through interviews and open ended
questions. Quantitative methods of data analysis was employed with both descriptive and
inferential statistics being applied to explain each objective of the study. The regression
model that represented the association between green procurement and service delivery was
in the form of:
P=β₀ + β1X1 + ε
Where;
P represents service delivery, β0 denotes the intercept (a constant), β 1, denotes the slope that
is associated to independent variable X2 (green procurement) and ε denotes the error term
that is assumed to be independent, identical, normally distributed random variable, with a
zero mean and a constant variation.
 4. Results and Discussion
4.1 Overall Reliability
The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for Green purchasing for the eight components are
displayed in Table 1 below. Green purchasing Cronbach's alpha values were greater than 0.7
both prior to and after the items were taken out. All eight of the Green purchasing assertions
were examined in the study. Item to total correlations were then examined in order to observe
scale refinement. Indicators having an item-to-total correlation of larger than 0.3 were kept
for further research (Hair et al., 2006).
Table 1: Reliability Results for Green Procurement
Scale Mean if Scale Variance if Corrected Item- Cronbach's Alpha Overall
Item Deleted Item Deleted Total Correlation if Item Deleted Cronbach's
Alpha
GP1 24.15 27.829 0.422 0.840 0.842
GP2 24.44 25.701 0.548 0.827
GP3 24.44 27.789 0.451 0.837
GP4 24.14 25.360 0.677 0.813
GP5 23.77 23.382 0.674 0.810
GP6 23.90 24.666 0.562 0.825
GP7 23.94 22.692 0.654 0.814
GP8 23.99 24.261 0.627 0.816
Source: Field Data (2023)

4.2. Results of Green procurement

The goal of the research was to ascertain whether the county governments in western Kenya's
delivery of services are impacted by environmentally friendly purchasing. Participants were
asked to rate their responses on a variety of topics on a rating system ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics for Green Procurement and Service Delivery

Green Procurement Response Skewness Kurtosis
N Mean Std.
Maximum

Std. Error

Std. Error
Minimum

Dev
Statistic

Statistic

The county complies with written 161 1 5 3.39 .828 -.227 .191 -.113 .379
guidelines for environmental protection
(i.e., Environmental Policy or
Environmental Guidelines)?
Goods, works and services are procured 161 1 5 3.10 .992 -.109 .191 -.020 .379
from suppliers who are compliant to
environmental Regulations.
 Products that are procured are made from 161 1 5 3.09 .794 -.058 .191 .634 .379
recycled materials.
Goods procured have information about 161 1 5 3.40 .888 -.128 .191 -.307 .379
their effects to the environment.
The disposal committee ensures that 161 1 5 3.77 1.150 -.372 .191 -1.221 .379
materials are disposed in a manner that
does not harm the environment.
The county considers working with 161 1 5 3.64 1.124 -.214 .191 -1.131 .379
suppliers who are ISO certified or are
considering getting ISO certification.
1 5 3.60 1.268 -.299 .191 -.765 .379
There are environmentally friendly 161
Technical specifications and/or award
criteria for the works, supplies or
services.
There is monitoring of environmental 1 5 3.55 1.092 -.330 .191 -.698 .379
protection or efficiency during the 161
execution of contracts or performance of
goods or services.
AVERAGE 161 1.125 5 3.442 .709 -.217 .191 .489 .379
Source: Field Data (2023)

The responses to the question regarding how green procurement practices influence
county governments' ability to deliver services in Western Kenya ranged from 3.10 to
3.77 at a standard deviation of.709 to 3.442 on average. In terms of Skewness and
Kurtosis values, both of these values were below 1.0, indicating that the pattern of
distribution is within the normal range and can therefore be regarded as normal.

4.3 Results for Linear Regression Analysis

According to Hypothesis 1, there is no statistically significant impact regarding green

purchasing on county governments' capacity to provide services in Western Kenya. A
linear regression analysis was used to investigate how environmentally friendly
purchasing affected County Governments' ability to deliver services in Western Kenya.
The following equation 4.1 was used:
P= βo+β1X1+ξ………………………………………………………………Eq. (4.1)
Where P stands for service delivery, β 0 represents the intercept (a constant), β 1 represents
the slope related to the independent variable X 1 (green procurement), and ξ represents
the error term, that is believed to represent an independent, identical normal distributed
random variable with mean that is 0 and a constant variation.
Table 3: Model summary on Green procurement
a.
Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .479a .230 .225 .45589
Predictors: (Constant), GP
Source: Field data (2023)
The R2 for the regression model between Green procurement and service delivery was
0.230 implying that Green Procurement explains 23% of variation in service delivery of
County Governments in western Kenya Region while the remaining variation is
explained by the error term.
Table 4: ANOVA table for Green Procurement and Service Delivery
Source: Field Data (2023)
Model Mean
Sum of Squares df Square F Sig.

1 Regression 9.914 1 9.914 47.698 .000b

Residual 33.254 160 .208

Total 43.168 161

a. Subordinate Variable: SERV Del

b. Indicators: (Consistent), GP

The F test gave a value of (161) =47.698, P<0.05, that gives support to the goodness of fit
of the model towards explaining variation in the dependent variable. It means also that
Green Procurement is a useful predictor of service delivery.
Table 5: Coefficients for Green Procurement and Service Delivery
Coefficientsa
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta T Sig.
1 (Constant) 2.615 .193 13.538 .000
GP .368 .053 .479 6.906 .000

Source: Field Data (2023)

The regression model obtained from the output was

Service Delivery=2.615+0.479 Green Procurement + error
Green Procurement had a standardized regression value of 0.479. This suggested that
County Governments in the Western Kenya Region will boost the delivery of services by
47.9% for each additional unit in sustainable purchasing. The t-statistic for the regression
coefficient for sustainable purchasing was significant (t=13.538, p<0.05) at the 5% level
of significance, indicating that the null assumption is rejected. Based on these data, the
study's results opine that there is a moderate and favorable relationship between
sustainable purchasing and county government delivery of services in the Western Kenya
Region. The alternative hypothesis, that suggested a statistically significant effect of
green purchasing on the delivery of services by county governments in western Kenya,
was thus embraced in place of the null hypothesis that suggested that there was no
statistically significant impact of green purchasing on service delivery by county
governments in western Kenya.
It is clear from the results presented above that purchasing sustainably has a favorable
and considerable impact on performance. It states that adopting sustainable purchasing
techniques, such as choosing eco-friendly vendors, complying with environmental
regulations, eco-friendly disposal, and reverse logistics, is likely to improve service
delivery. Shilungu and Miroga's (2019) conclusions, found a strong and favorable
association between sustainable procurement and the county government of Vihiga's
delivery of services, lend credence to this.
According to qualitative findings, insufficient funding to undertake environmentally
friendly purchasing and a lack of employee education by organizations also lead to the
absence of sustainability-minded procurement implementation. County governments
must also make sure that their employees receive sufficient instruction in order to
implement the environmentally friendly procurement idea successfully.
5. CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion
The conclusion was that organizations could achieve modernization without
compromising the environment. In Counties of Western Region, Kenya, it was
established that green procurement has been partially implemented due to lack of its
awareness or just disregard of the environmental policy .Therefore the top management is
considered as key in ensuring that the environmental laws are adhered to in the
procurement processes of their Counties. This finding affirms the ecological
modernization theory that asserts that joint benefit of modernization and environmental
concern could be achieved if laws were implemented to their latter. Key was that laws
need to be reinforced in order to achieve their implementation.
Green procurement was therefore established to have a significant relationship with
service delivery of the County Governments in Western Region, Kenya. This depicts that
an improvement in Green Procurement Practices in terms of its adoption and
implementation would result to an improvement in service delivery levels of County
Governments of Western Region, Kenya. Therefore this study concluded that Green
Procurement has a significant influence on service delivery of County Governments in
Western Region, Kenya.
5.2 Recommendation
Counties should avail design specifications to their suppliers which entails environmental
requirement for procured items. In furtherance, there exist need for the Counties to
conduct an audit on suppliers’ internal environmental management and to ensure that
there is cooperation between the Counties and suppliers with regards to cleaner
production and green packaging. Further, there should also be a deliberate effort from the
County Governments to ensure that the established environmental laws are adhered to by
the procurement departments in terms of procuring environmental friendly products and
proper disposal of obsolete products.
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