Lead time analysis of capital item procurements : a case of public departments

Abstract

Lead time in public procurements is not a common topic which is discussed in the government sector. That is because of the lot of barriers in the public sector which affect the efficiency of the lead time of all the procurements in both government departments and ministries. Even though it is not a commonly talked topic, the impact which it makes to the government as a whole is a topic to be discussed. Public procurements can be divided in to two considering their nature as capital and recurrent item procurements. However the purpose of this research is to analyze the lead time of capital item procurements in government departments. The study is designed to obtain views and ideas from suppliers and to collect secondary data which is already in the previous procurements files of the department. Literature review, questionnaires were used to collect data for the study. For the collection of data from previous procurements were done purposively selecting samples which represents various categories such as vehicle procurements, generator procurements, garage equipment procurements, and communication equipment procurements. The study found a number of reasons for delays or long lead times sometimes common for all categories and sometime separately related to some categories. Findings reveal that there are number of reasons for the long lead time or the delays in public procurements such as staff inefficiency, lack of funds, long approval process in procurement process, political uncertainties, staff transfers and more.