Identifying Competencies for Procuring Equipment Facilities in Public Tertiary Institutions Towards a Sustainable Procurement

Public tertiary institutions (PTI) often face challenges in the procurement of public educational facilities (i.e., buildings, equipment, roads, ICT, etc), leading to delays, cost overruns, and substandard infrastructure delivery. This in turn, affects the efficiency of the teaching and learning environment. Recently, requirements for procurement functions, competencies, and skills have become multi-disciplinary, cutting across several range of skill-sets to facilitate a more sustainable teaching and learning environment. However, a comprehensive understanding of the competencies required in the procurement of different types of equipment that support effective and sustainable teaching and learning in PTI is lacking. This study identifies the competencies required for the procurement of equipment in PTI. The study collected data from procurement personnel in public institutions within Kaduna, Nigeria through a questionnaire survey. A response rate of 40% was retrieved. The results show that all the competencies identified from the literature are critical in the procurement of equipment in PTI. However, the result shows that the ‘application of national procurement law & procedures’, ‘tendering’, ‘communication (oral/written)’, ‘procurement planning’, and ‘quality management’ are the top five with the highest importance in the procurement of equipment in PTI. The study therefore, recommends that procurement personnel within PTI should focus more on improving competencies in the areas of ‘cultural awareness’, ‘business case development/business planning’, ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘application of corporate social responsibility procedures’, ‘stress management’ and ‘application of corporate social responsibility procedures.