Enhancing procurement quality performance in a developing country: the roles of procurement audit and top management commitment

Despite its strategic importance, procurement quality performance remains not only a difficult-to-improve public procurement outcome in developing countries but also knowledge of its determinants is underdeveloped. This research uses a contingent-agency perspective to propose procurement audit as a procurement quality performance-enhancer, especially when there is a strong top management commitment to strategic procurement issues. Survey data from 223 public sector organizations in Ghana support these propositions. Additional results, however, reveal that internal and external aspects of procurement audit relate differently to self-reported procurement quality performance under differing conditions of top management commitment. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented.