The impact of performance contracting on the peformance of Kenya prisons service
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Date
2014-07-28
Authors
Ogola, Humphrey Young
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Abstract
Following the evolution of the public service over the past four decades, organization and
management styles have had to change accordingly. Performance contracting has been used as
part of the broader reforms aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in the management
of the public sector organizations. In recent times, different governments have borrowed
performance contracting ideology to improve performance of public sector institutions Kenya
included. Several countries had earlier implemented performance contracts in their public
institutions. Though found to have obtained varied results, most countries reported improved
performance compared with period before contracts. Kenya borrowed the concept in 2003 to
mitigate against poor public governance, wastage and misuse of public resources in the public
institutions. There was need to examine the extent to which these contracts have enabled
improved performance in Kenya. While performance measures were in wide use for many years,
new frameworks have emerged in recent years that extend organizational perspectives beyond
traditional performance measures. Among them the Balanced Scorecard is one of the most
popular new frameworks. Balanced scorecard is a set of measures that consider both financial
and non-financial perspectives in determining the overall performance of an institution. This
study is dedicated to assessing the impact of performance contracts in Kenya Prisons Service
using BSC. This will be achieved by implementing the following objectives; determining the
extent of involvement of directors in the design of performance contracts, determining the extent
to which performance has been influenced by performance contract, to establish the extent to
which Performance contract has allowed autonomy in decision making and finally to establish
challenges facing the implementation of performance contracting. This study is going to use
both primary and secondary sources to gather information.