Does Performance Contracting Drive Citizen-centric Service Delivery: The Case of Huduma Centers’ in Kenya

Abstract

Public service delivery is a concept that has attracted a lot of interest in the discourse on performance management. Citizen-centric service delivery which assures that services reach individuals is however a concept that has not receiving due consideration under the public service delivery reforms. While, it is acknowledged that performance contracting has the potential to unlock competitiveness among public entities, no evidence exists to show how performance contracting impacts on citizen-centric service delivery in the context of the Huduma programme in Kenya. This study analyzes the effect of performance contracting on citizen-centric service delivery in Huduma centre’s in Kenya. The study adopts the explanatory research design in line with the post-positivist research philosophy. A sample of 276 employees’ is drawn from Huduma centre’s in the western region of Kenya. Data collected by way of self-administered questionnaire is analyzed using multiple regressions. The key finding of the study is that performance contracting does indeed drive citizen-centric service delivery in Huduma centre’s in Kenya. Specific findings indicate that performance planning and, monitoring and reporting are positive and significant determinants of citizen-centric service delivery, while target setting is not a significant determinant. The study concludes that, performance planning and monitoring and reporting, are important performance contracting phases in the pursuit of citizen-centric service delivery in Huduma centres in Kenya. Reforms in the Huduma programme should therefore seek to maximize mechanisms that provide for performance planning and monitoring and reporting. Future studies should however, examine target setting which in spite of being critical does not seem to have significant impacts on citizen-centric service delivery.