Impact of Performance Contracting in Public Service Delivery

Abstract

ABSTRACT Public sector reforms have become the norm in the present world. This has been necessitated the poor performance of the state enterprises that have become a burden both financially and administratively. Tax payers have come out openly demanding the value for their money i.e. efficient, effective and ethical delivery of service to the citizens. In Kenya, these public sector reforms have been• embraced partly through signing of performance contracts. This research project looks at the impact of such performance contracts in the National Registration Bureau. The department charged with registering Kenyans of 18years and above in the former Meru Central District. It tries to find out whether "Not Previously Registered" figures increase with the signing of performance contracts. Not Previously Registered refers to Kenyans acquiring identity cards for the first time. It is also aimed at finding out whether there are other variables that the government can tap to enhance the "Not Previously Registered" figures. These independent variables include financial resources and events taking place like elections and referendums. The project encountered its own limitation when some data could not be found in the initially designed offices. This was overcome by consulting the National Registration Bureau Headquarters Nairobi, at an extra cost of time and money. The officers at the National Bureau Headquarters were hesitant to give the data until when permission was granted by the director. Justification of the project is outlined as well as the objective. The project encompasses both theoretical and empirical literature review, showing what other writers views on performance contracts are. Using secondary data from the North Imenti District Registrar's office, covering the period 1999 - 2008, and analyzing it using descriptive statistics, the research was able to identify the periods with high and low "Not Previously Registered" figures. During this period, Kenya has had 2 general elections and a referendum in 2005 factors that affect the performance of the department. It is during the later years of this period that the National Registration Bureau embraced use of performance contracts and this paper tried to establish if the 'NPR' figures go up with the signing of the PCs, thus better Public Service Delivery. The project sampled 49068 cases from a population of 135292 cases. Data presentation and analysis was done using bar graphs and percentages.