Unethical Behaviors in Public Procurement in Local Government Authorities: What are the Drivers toward Unethical Behaviors?

Abstract

The focus of the study was to assess the factors influencing the unethical behavior towards public procurement in Local Authorities in Tanzania. The study adopted a quantitative approach whereby questionnaires were used to collect data from employees of Local Government Authority in Iringa. Stratified sampling was used to ensure sample representation among students from different faculties and levels of education, thereafter simple random sampling was used to collect data from the sample size of 118 respondents.

After using multiple regressions, the findings revealed that employee's attitude, social factor and facilitating condition are among factors influencing unethical behavior in public procurement. Basing from these findings this study thus concludes that employee attitudes, social pressure and facilitating conditions are among strong factor influencing unethical behavioral in public procurement in Local Authorities in Tanzania. This study recommended that regulation should be followed to ensure compliance with ethical issue by conducting internal and external capacity building. Also, the Government policy makers should make sure that the social factor should be taken into account with regard to the moral behaviors of Local Government Authorities before employing them.