Ethical orientation, ethical decision-making and bid evaluation behavior of PDE’s in Uganda

Abstract

This study was prompted by the ever-increasing cases of unethical issues in Procurements of most PDE’s in Ugandan. The preoccupation in a lot of Government institutions seemed to be with satisfying their personal interests rather than procuring the right items with the right specifications.

A cross-sectional study was carried out among PDU staff and Evaluation Committee members of 91 PDE’s in Kampala and neighboring towns, to examine the relationship between ethical orientation, decision-making and the behavior of bid evaluation committees of Uganda’s PDE’s.

The study revealed that ethical orientation significantly affects ethical decision-making of PDE’s in Uganda and when procurement officials in these PDE’s are making decisions, they base on their judgment of what is right or wrong through applying ethical guidelines set out in codes of conduct and governing rules and regulations. Ethical Decision-making does not entirely depend on ethical orientation, but is also a function of gender and age of the evaluation committee members, organization’s sector, employee number, evaluation committee size, organization’s existence and numbers of prequalified suppliers. It was also established that there is a link between ethical decision-making and bid evaluation behavior of PDE’s in Uganda.

Basing on the above findings, it was deemed important to reinforce ethical behavior in the form of rewarding committee members’ ethical decisions taken. PDEs were also implored to look into specific work situations; the work groups, opportunities and other factors that influence the behavior of the bid evaluation committee members like steps to guide ethical decision making.