ART - THE VALUE OF CERTIFICATION IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT: THE BIRTH OF A PROFESSION? 2010

This document is a research paper titled "Supplier Delivery Performance in Ugandan Public Procurement Contracts" published in the Journal of Public Procurement in 2010. The paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework for achieving supplier delivery performance in public procurement contracts in Uganda. The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey of public procuring and disposing entities (PDEs) in Uganda to gather data on contract governance mechanisms, justice perceptions, and ethical behavior. The paper highlights the importance of contracts in public procurement transactions and their role in infusing order, mitigating conflict, and realizing mutual gains from trade. It discusses how contract governance mechanisms serve to align the interests of contracting parties, reduce opportunistic behavior, and lower transaction costs. The authors argue that poorly managed procurement contracts can result in conflicts, and justice is often out of reach for suppliers in developing countries. The paper also addresses the lack of research on the correlation between contracts and performance. It emphasizes the need for quantitative information on contract governance in Uganda and aims to provide a new lens of organizational theory to understand the multiple purposes of contracts. The authors propose a conceptual model that links contract governance, justice perceptions, information exchange, ethical behavior, and supplier delivery performance. The literature review section of the paper discusses the related research on contractual governance mechanisms, justice perceptions, information exchange, moral principles, and ethical behavior. It uses an organizational theory perspective to construct hypotheses that are later tested in the study. The paper further emphasizes the critical role of relationships between organizations and organization members in the survival of institutions. It draws on the work of DiMaggio and Powell (1998) to highlight the significance of these relationships in the context of public procurement contracts. Overall, the paper provides theoretical, empirical, and policy implications for achieving supplier delivery performance in Ugandan public procurement contracts. It highlights the challenges and issues related to contract governance in Uganda and emphasizes the importance of proper contract management to reduce opportunism and improve performance.