Economy

Big bet on E-payments to seal fraud loopholes

Treasury secretary Henry Rotich is betting big on electronic-procurement to curb corruption and seal wastage of public resources in national and county governments.   

The government plans to move all payments onto a digital platform, which got a Sh1.9 billion allocation.

The e-procurement system is a component of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS)— that was adopted in 1995 as the sole accounting system for public expenditure.

E-procurement is expected to end the manual buying of goods and services that is susceptible to manipulation and corruption.

“The objective of the Government Digital Programme is to ensure that all payments are made electronically, so as to significantly reduce administrative costs, minimise leakages and expand access to payment points,” said Mr Rotich.

READ: State agencies have June deadline to embrace e-procurement

The e-procurement system is part of a wider strategy to deliver government services online.

Other than the IFMIS system, the government developed the e-citizen portal that enables users to apply and pay for services online.

Mr Rotich Thursday said that 400,000 citizens have registered on the e-citizen portal and over 8,000 transactions worth Sh10 million are done on the platform daily.  

“We have programmed to digitise at least 100 inbound payment service transactions by end of 2015, in order to hasten service delivery, reduce transaction cost and safeguard revenue,” he added.

Priority areas include; payments for business registration, land transaction services and motor vehicles.