Contract Management Practices and Service Delivery in Local Governments: Evidence from Structural Equation Modeling
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47604/gjppm.3788Keywords:
Contract Management, Public Sector, Service Delivery, Structural Equation ModelingAbstract
Purpose: This study examined the effect of contract management practices on service delivery, with a main focus on contract monitoring, change and variation management, and contract performance evaluation. The study aims to examine the direct and collective effects of these practices on public-sector service delivery. The increased public procurement expenditure, which does not represent the expected service delivery, is the major motivation behind this study in order to provide empirical evidence to inform practice and policy.
Methodology: The study employed a cross-sectional research design based on a quantitative approach using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from 181 respondents in Jinja District and City, while secondary data was collected through reviewing existing documents. The sample was determined through stratified and simple random sampling techniques. SPSS (Version 28) and JASP (Version 0, 95.4.0) were used in data analysis. The preliminary findings revealed a (KMO) result of 0.808, and a significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity (χ² = 8822, df = 276, p < 0.001). Mardia’s test (skewness p = 0227; kurtosis p = 0.777). The reliability and validity of the measurement model for all the constructs (CR) ranged from 0.848 to 0.868 and were above the threshold of 0.7, hence supporting the reliability of the constructs, and the average variance extracted (AVE) was above 0.50, implying that constructs explain a substantial portion of variance in their respective indicators. The model revealed good fit indices CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.056, SRMR = 0.049.
Findings: The findings revealed that contract monitoring (β = 0.271, t = 4.314, p < 0.001), change and variation management, (β = 0.254, t = 4.000, p < 0.012) and contract performance evaluation (β = 0.321, t = 5.156, p < 0.001) revealing a positive significant effect on service delivery with the model accounting for 47.2% of variance (R2 = 0.472). It was concluded that contract management practices have a significant positive effect on service delivery in the public sector, and the researchers recommend the use of digital systems, structured performance procedures, transparency, accountability, training, and enforcement of rules and procedures.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Although several studies have examined contract management practices, their methodologies have not employed advanced analytical techniques like SEM. In addition, current studies like (Mwanaumo, Mwale, Mwanaumo, Mwanza, & Chisumbe, 2024; Changalima, Mushi, & Mwaiselage, 2023) have often considered contract management as a unidimensional construct, neglecting the multidimensional nature resulting in contract monitoring, change and variation management, and contract performance evaluation as proposed by (World Bank, 2021). The empirical findings indicated that contract management significantly influences service delivery, implying that those responsible for contract management should allocate more resources and critically monitor post-award management, rather than focusing solely on the contract award phase. This study suggests that government regulatory bodies should strengthen procurement rules and regulations, enhance institutional capacity through training, and consistently align contract management objectives with service delivery to enhance public value.
Downloads
References
Abiola, A., & Oladipo, O. (2020). Contract management and public service efficiency. Journal of Public Procurement, 20(3), 45–62.
Ameyaw, C., Mensah, S., & Osei-Tutu, E. (2012). Public procurement in Ghana: The implementation challenges to the Public Procurement Law 2003 (Act 663). International Journal of Construction Supply Chain Management, 2(2), 55–65.
Bank, W. (2021). Enhancing public procurement for sustainable development. World Bank Publications.
Basheka, B. C., & Bisangabasaija, E. (2010). Determinants of unethical public procurement in local government systems of Uganda. International Journal of Procurement Management, 3(1), 91–104.
Bombo, F. B. (2026). Compliance gaps in public procurement and contract management: Empirical evidence from Controller and Auditor General audit reports on public authorities in Tanzania (2014/15–2023/24). International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, 13(2), 45–60.
Brown, T. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Byrne, B. M. (2016). Structural equation modeling with AMOS (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Changalima, I. A., Mushi, G. E., & Mwaiselage, J. (2023). Supplier monitoring and procurement performance in public organizations. International Journal of Procurement Management, 16(2), 215–232.
Costello, A. B., & Osborne, J. W. (2005). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 10(7), 1–9.
Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). Sage.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Ibbs, C. W., Wong, C. K., & Kwak, Y. H. (2001). Project change management system. Journal of Management in Engineering, 17(3), 159–165.
International Monetary Fund. (2023). Public procurement and fiscal governance: Selected issues paper. IMF.
Kaiser, H. F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36.
Kakooza, F. (2018). Procurement and contract management practices in Uganda: Challenges and opportunities. African Journal of Management, 4(2), 101–119.
Kenyi, J. A., & Barasa, P. W. (2021). Influence of contract management practices on service delivery in the public sector: Evidence from Uganda. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 11(8), 118–132.
Kinyua, K. M., Changwony, F. K., & Campbell, K. (2024). Government procurement contracts, external audit certification, and financing of SMEs. Small Business Economics, 62(3), 1123–1140.
Kline, R. B. (2016). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). Guilford Press.
Love, P. E., Smith, J., & Regan, M. (2019). Managing variations in construction projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 145(6), 1–10.
McClave, J. T., Sincich, T., & Benson, P. G. (2018). Statistics for business and economics (13th ed.). Pearson.
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. (2025). Public sector transformation annual monitoring report FY2024/25. Government of Uganda.
Mlinga, R. S. (2018). Effect of procurement practices on service delivery. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 7(3), 45–53.
Moore, M. H. (1995). Creating public value: Strategic management in government. Harvard University Press.
Munyimi, T. F., & Chikazheb, L. (2024). Intensifying service delivery: Are procurement framework agreements relevant? Cogent Business & Management.
Mwanaumo, E. M., Mwale, C. C., Mwanaumo, E. T., Mwanza, B. G., & Chisumbe, S. (2024). Practitioner insights on determinants of procurement contract management and constraints in government construction projects. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 8(1), 1–15.
Office of the Auditor General. (2025). Report of the Auditor General to Parliament for the financial year ended 30th June 2025. Government of Uganda. Office of the Auditor General Uganda
Office of the Prime Minister. (2025). Local government management of service delivery assessment report 2024/25. Government of Uganda.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2016). Preventing corruption in public procurement. OECD Publishing.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). Government at a glance 2023. OECD Publishing.
Onyango, P. (2019). Contract compliance and service delivery in local government. East African Journal of Public Administration, 5(1), 75–92.
Panakaduwa, C., Coates, P., & Munir, M. (2025). Analysis of procurement routes and contract types for housing retrofit in the United Kingdom. Buildings.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12–40.
Province, N. W. (2024). Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. Education.
Rahman, M. M., & Kumaraswamy, M. M. (2002). Contractor evaluation and variation management in construction projects. International Journal of Project Management, 20(6), 437–445.
Raykov, T. (1997). Estimation of composite reliability for congeneric measures. Applied Psychological Measurement, 21(2), 173–184.
Raykov, T., & Marcoulides, G. A. (2006). A first course in structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). Psychology Press.
Schermelleh-Engel, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Müller, H. (2003). Evaluating the fit of structural equation models: Tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. Methods of Psychological Research, 8(2), 23–74.
Stevens, J. P. (2012). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (5th ed.). Routledge.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2019). Using multivariate statistics (7th ed.). Pearson.
Tátrai, T., Nyikos, G., & Hajdu, O. (2024). Enhancing transparency and accountability in public procurement: The role of contract monitoring and control systems. Public Money & Management, 44(2), 145–154.
Thai, K. V. (2009). International handbook of public procurement. CRC Press.
West, S. G., Finch, J. F., & Curran, P. J. (1995). Structural equation models with nonnormal variables: Problems and remedies. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications (pp. 56–75). Sage.
World Bank. (2017). Benchmarking public procurement 2017: Assessing public procurement regulatory systems. World Bank.
World Bank. (2019). Enhancing government effectiveness for improved public services. World Bank.
World Bank. (2021). Public procurement in Africa: Improving service delivery. World Bank Publications.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Muheesi Alex Gerald, Eton Marus, Ssebagala Cyprian, Namuli Josephine, Kasenge Martin Jjuuko, Segawa Edward Katumba
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
