CONSTRAINTS OF E-PROCUREMENT IMPLEMENTATION ON PRECONTRACT TENDER PERFORMANCE OF NORTHCENTRAL NIGERIA CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Abstract

The increasing lack of expected growth in the usage of e-procurement system has exposed Nigerian construction procurement process to fraud, corruption and all forms of anomalies now inherent in the Nigerian construction industry procurement system. The situation has thus, undermined the integrity of the procurement process especially at the precontract stages. This study therefore, assesses the constraints militating against the implementation of eprocurement system in the Nigerian construction sector. The research methodology involved qualitative approach in which primary data was retrieved using semi-structured questionnaire of which 303 numbers were properly filled and returned out of the 384 numbers distributed for this study thus, representing about 79% return rate. The method of analysis involved descriptive statistics comprising percentages, frequencies and mean scores. The result revealed the top-most real users of the e-procurement system in Nigeria as- supply chain manager/procurement officers, contracting firms, and building materials manufacturer/vendors with mean scores of 4.02, 3.99 and 3.95 respectively. Consequently, the top-most constraints militating against the adoption of e-procurement system includes lack of supportive ICT Infrastructure, inadequate computer-literate construction stakeholders, and lack of awareness of the benefits of e-procurement system with mean scores of 4.79, 4.65 and 4.56 correspondingly. The study concluded that despite revealing the actual users of e-procurement system in Nigeria to be supply chain manager/procurement officers, contracting firms, building materials manufacturer/vendors as the topmost users, not all of them in the wider scope of users, actually uses e-procurement system to its maximum benefits, owing to insufficiency of supportive ICT infrastructure, lack of adequate compute-literate construction stakeholders, and lack of awareness of the benefits of eprocurement system in Nigeria. This study therefore recommends need for sufficient ICT infrastructure support by e-procurement stakeholders, increased level of computer literacy of construction stakeholders, and creation of a robust awareness on the benefits of e-procurement systems in Nigeria