The Relevance of Public Procurement Procedures on Financial Accountability of Public Universities in Ekiti State, Nigeria

This study examined the relevance of public procurement procedures on financial accountability of public universities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined the contribution of procurement planning, souring, contract management, contracting, inventory management and evaluation on financial accountability captured with cost reduction of public universities in Ekiti State. The study adopted descriptive research design of a survey type. All the 142 officers in the bursary and audit department of Federal University of Oye Ekiti and Ekiti State Universities constitute the population of this study. Using total population sampling method, all the 142 officers were selected as the sampled size of the study. Data were gathered via the administered closed ended questionnaires to the targeted respondents. To analyze these datasets, correlation and multiple linear regression analysis methods were adopted. It was revealed from the estimation result presented that, procurement planning, sourcing, contract management, contracting, inventory management and evaluation exert a positive effect on cost reduction of public universities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. However, the positive effect is only significant for procurement planning, sourcing, contract management and inventory management to the tune of 0.076(p-0.030<0.05) for procurement planning, 0.245(p=0.000<0.05) for sourcing, 0.411(p=0.025<0.04) for contract management and .189(p=0.001<0.05), against the insignificant effect of contracting and evaluation on cost reduction of public universities in Ekiti State, Nigeria with the coefficient and probability values of 0.217(p=0.059>0.05) for contracting and 0.033(p=0.546>0.05) for evaluation. Based on the findings made, it can be established that there is a statistically significant relationship between public procurement procedures and financial accountability of public universities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. It was recommended that the management of public universities in Ekiti State, Nigeria should promote the use of sourcing in its procurement function to minimize costs and promote efficiency in procurement functions. Also, to promote the significant effect of contract management, the management of the public universities should train and retrain the staff of the procurement department on effective contract management practices to minimize cost. With this, they will be more conversant with the activities embedded in contract management.