Managing Supplier Relationship in a Typical Public Procurement Entity in Ghana: Outcome and Challenges

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to determine ways of managing supplier relationships to improve public procurement performance whiles conforming to legal and procedural framework for public sector procurement. Supplier relationship management is one of the most important aspect of supply chain management. Most public sector institutions especially in developing economies however neglect this aspect in their procurement practices. The advent of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) in Ghana addresses so many procurement issues but does not address supplier relationship management issues to achieve a long term benefit for the organization that will bring a win-win approach for the benefit of the organization. Hence, this study was set using public tertiary educational institutions as a case study to determine how supplier relationships are managed vis-à-vis procurement regulations to achieve procurement performance. The main findings revealed that selected entity follows accepted strategies of supplier relationship management in extent literature in order to ensure value for money and improve procurement performance. However, the existing relationships has some accompanying challenges. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications from these finding.