Procurement Planning Improvement Strategies and Challenges in Construction Project Delivery within the Public Tertiary Education Sector

The tertiary education sector projects are increasingly plagued by delay and budget blow-out, resulting in persistent cost and time overruns. The study investigates the influence of procurement planning improvement strategies and challenges in construction project delivery in the public tertiary sector. Data was collected from a random sample of 517 stakeholders in Rivers and Akwa Ibom State and analyzed using Mean Item Scores (MIS) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The research findings reveal that the procurement planning strategies with the most critical effect are improving the institutional framework, incorporating sustainability into procurement planning, and monitoring and evaluating procurement performance. The factors with high effect inhibiting procurement planning were identified as inadequate institutional framework/policy/regulation, poor supplier relationship management, and ineffective procurement regulation. The results of the path diagram indicate that implementing the procurement planning improvement strategies policy produces a perfect correlation (r = 1.00; very high) with challenges inhibiting effective procurement planning. This implies that the validated strategies could comprehensively and holistically mitigate the archetypes of challenges inhibiting procurement planning in the tertiary education sector in Akwa Ibom and Rivers State. The study concludes that non-compliance with procurement procedures can lead to delays, cost overruns, and poor project outcomes, therefore, procurement laws and procedures should be enforced. Therefore, this provides practical implications for policymakers on the need for institutional reforms and compliance within tertiary institutions. The study recommends that stakeholders develop risk management plans, conduct long-term dialed needs assessments, and embrace digital technologies such as e-procurement to improve procurement planning.