Purpose The achievement of sustainable development goals is linked to the procurement of public infrastructure in a manner that meets key procurement objectives, such as sustainability, value-for-money, transparency and accountability. At the heart of achieving these procurement objectives and others is the capacity of public procurement institutions. Whereas previous reports have hinted that there are deficiencies in procurement capacity in Nigeria, insights regarding critical aspects of organisational capacity deficiencies among different tiers of government agencies is limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical gaps in the procurement capacity of state and local government agencies involved in the procurement of public infrastructure in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a survey of public infrastructure procurement personnel which yielded 288 responses. Findings Among 23 operationalised items that are related to organisational procurement capacity, none is perceived to be adequate by the procurement personnel. Additionally, among 14 procurement objectives only 1 is perceived as being attained to at least a high extent. Originality/value The findings underscore the acuteness of organisational procurement capacity weaknesses among public procurement institutions within Nigeria’s governance structure. It is, thus, imperative for policy makers within state and local government to formulate, resource and implement procurement capacity building initiatives/programmes to address these deficiencies. Additionally, the organisational procurement capacity items operationalised in this study could serve as a useful blueprint for studying capacity deficiencies among public infrastructure procurement agencies in other developing countries, especially within sub-Saharan Africa where several countries have been implementing public procurement reforms.
Public procurement capacity is composed of three facets: individual; organizational; and an enabling national environment which encapsulates national legislation, policies, and institutional arrangements that can facilitate or hamper the effectiveness of procurement. This study investigated the extent to which procurement capacity challenges in the national environment affect the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement by public agencies in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: 30 procurement capacity challenges drawn from literature were operationalized in a survey of infrastructure procurement personnel in different tiers of public agencies (i.e. local and state government) in order to ascertain the critical challenges affecting the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement. The survey yielded 288 responses, which were analysed using descriptive statistics, one sample ttest and independent samples t-test. Findings: Challenges related to transparency, integrity and accountability are amongst the topmost challenges adversely affecting the effectiveness of public infrastructure procurement. There is limited difference in the extent to which the challenges affect the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement in different tiers of public agencies in Nigeria. Originality/value: Whilst various procurement capacity challenges have been identified in the extent literature, this study has shown that an assessment of their effect on the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement could reveal valuable insights regarding the status of public infrastructure procurement within a country, particularly countries in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions where there is acute infrastructure deficits. Such insights could inform appropriate infrastructure procurement reforms by policy makers, procurement entities, and infrastructure funders.
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