Procurement practices and public sector procurement performance in Ghana: the moderating role of political interference

Scholars and practitioners have shown keen interest in understanding how procurement practices influence public sector procurement performance. More importantly, there have been inconsistent results on this phenomenon. Political interference has been noted as a potential contributing factor, especially in developing nations such as Ghana, but has not been examined in prior empirical studies. Grounded in the agency theory, we explore two mechanisms that are key in influencing public sector procurement performance: 1) procurement practice; 2) political interference. Data from 308 procurement practitioners from state institutions in Ghana were obtained using questionnaires. Smart PLS version 4 was employed to analyse the data. The outcomes confirm a positive statistically significant relationship between procurement practice and public sector procurement performance. Additionally, political interference negatively moderates the relationship between procurement practice and public sector procurement performance. The contributions to theory and practice are discussed.