Assessment of the role of procurement in achieving better customer service:

Abstract

T Procurement activities play a significant role in contributing to better service in any organization, because they may lead up to customer satisfaction as well as income increase when they are well performed. This study was carried out to assess the role of procurement in achieving better customer service at AUWSA. The study was carried out in Arusha Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (AUWSA). The descriptive research design with a triangulation approach was used, where Non probability sampling was used and sample was selected using purposive sampling, The data collection tools were structured questionnaires that was distributed to purposively selected members of the AUWSA, a detailed analysis was carried out on total number of fifty people who are in management team and staffs in AUWSA’s procurement department, stores and All heads of sections, units and supervisors of user department who are directly involved in procurement activities. The data were analyzed by employing descriptive statistics by the usage of percentages, frequencies and tables, correlation and regression was used by the researcher to present the relationship between objectives aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V 20) in analysis. The findings show that the majority of the respondents revealed that there is a relationship between procurement and better customer service about 90.0% of the respondent strongly agree that procurement has a significant contribution in offering better customer services. Factors like bureaucracy in procurement processes, delay of document in approval and authorization process, and long procurement procedures, improper procurement planning and ineffective use of inventory tracking system are some of the challenges facing the procurement process. From the findings the researcher recommends that for an organization to be in a position of achieving better customer service should make sure there is a close management follow-up to ensure the procurement process is in place. Also, that the procurement approval cycle (bureaucracy) should be minimized, proper inventory tracking system should be used while 20.0% of all the respondents claimed that early needs identification can solve the problem. Further researches should be carried out on this subject but in different areas and also other objective should be researched to build and add more knowledge in the area of procurement contribution to better service in other Public institution to establish more insights on the subject matter