Rotich tells public agencies to upload purchase plans

What you need to know:

This means all interested parties will be able to know what is required and the prices at which goods are finally supplied.
Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government will be required to start the e-procurement goods early enough in the financial year to promote accountability.
Goods and services worth Sh700 billion are expected to be supplied, based on the development budget.
Rotich said the move will also enable the government to monitor how many of the contracts are given to the youth, women and people with disabilities.

All public agencies must upload purchase lists showing goods and services to be supplied in the next financial year, Treasury secretary Henry Rotich said Monday.

This means all interested parties will be able to know what is required and the prices at which goods are finally supplied.

Mr Rotich said ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government will be required to start the e-procurement goods early enough in the financial year to promote accountability.

The Treasury wrote to the MDAs last week demanding they prepare plans for the supply of goods and services in the financial year starting next month.

Goods and services worth Sh700 billion are expected to be supplied, based on the development budget.

“We wrote to the various government ministries, departments and agencies to prepare their procurement plans last week. We have asked them to upload the plans into e-procurement system by next week,” said Mr Rotich.

The minister said the move will also enable the government to monitor how many of the contracts are given to the youth, women and people with disabilities.

The Treasury has been urging the MDAs to prepare their procurement plans early in order to increase absorption of the cash allocated in the budget.

In the nine months ending March 2015, Sh53.4 billion had not been spent because of delays in procuring goods and services as well as the rigid procurement law.

Mr Rotich said that amendments were now before Parliament to make changes to the Procurement and Disposal Act with a view to making it easier to supply goods and services to the government.

The e-procurement module is part of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). It is intended to reduce cases of corruption and wastage of public resources in national and county governments. Mr Rotich spoke at the KICC in Nairobi during the launch of a training programme for government suppliers on the e-procurement system.

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

The training will be done in all counties to ensure that both the national and devolved government suppliers use the e-procurement system.

During the function, Finance secretary Mutua Kilaka said the e-procurement system had an audit trail function which would be used in the event of investigations.

Integrating all supply and payment systems into the digital platform is now a top government priority, with Sh1.9 billion having already been allocated from the annual budget.

“The Treasury during the financial year 2015/16 budget period will make fully operational the Integrated Financial Information Management System (IFMIS) as an end-to-end transaction platform in all MDAs and county governments, and in particular, operationalise the Procure-to-Pay module before end of 2015,” said Mr Rotich in the budget estimates released shortly before last week’s Budget Statement.

The government intends to cut administrative costs and expand access to payment points across the national government and counties through the online programme.

One of the objectives of the system is to monitor the use of local content in the national and county governments.