Government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) fell short by Sh10.7 billion in their target of issuing at least a third of their tenders to youth, women and persons with disability (PWD) in the year ending June 2021.
A report by the Public Service Performances Management and Monitoring Unit shows that youth, women and the disabled were awarded Sh50.83 billion government tenders against a target of Sh61.48 billion, representing a shortfall of 17 percent.
All MDAs are required to allocate at least 30 percent of their tenders to the disadvantaged groups under the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) programme.
The shortfall was most pronounced in institutions of higher learning, which met just over half their target for the affirmative tenders, while State corporations got more than 90 percent.
“On average, Tertiary Institutions performed poorly, achieving 59.12 percent compared to 62.49 percent and 90.84 percent for Ministries (including State House, Office of the Attorney General & Department of Justice and Office of the Deputy President) and State Corporations, respectively,” says the report.
"Although there was a slight improvement in performance for tertiary institutions from 50.13 percent to 59.12 percent, this category remains the lowest-performing for the two years."
Tertiary institutions awarded Sh1.68 billion of tenders against a target of Sh2.85billion in the period, while ministries awarded tenders worth Sh9.08 billion against a target of Sh14.54 billion.
State corporations issued women, youth and the disabled Sh40.06 billion worth of tenders during the period against a target of Sh44.09 billion.
Performance contracts
The report ranks government ministries, departments and agencies on the implementation of the performance contracts.
The report looked at criteria including performance of the core mandate, which evaluates operational performance, absorption of externally mobilised funds and resources allocated by the Treasury.
