President Uhuru Kenyatta. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- Mr Kenyatta issued the directive in June and publication of the contract details on a designated public procurement website was expected to begin in July.
- The portal https://tenders.go.ke/website so far has only 2,566 tenders listed arising from 423 contracts worth Sh23.23 billion.
- The contracts have been awarded to 2,320 registered suppliers.
Kenya’s richest State corporations and agencies are yet to
comply with President Uhuru Kenyatta's directive to publish online,
details of the multibillion shilling tenders they award.
Mr
Kenyatta issued the directive in June and publication of the contract
details on a designated public procurement website was expected to begin
in July.
The portal https://tenders.go.ke/website so
far has only 2,566 tenders listed arising from 423 contracts worth
Sh23.23 billion. The contracts have been awarded to 2,320 registered
suppliers.
Mr Kenyatta, while issuing the directive, had argued that
publication of the tenders would allow the public to scrutinise the
deals, including the quality and amounts of goods and services purchased
as well as the cost and identity of the suppliers.
Full
compliance with the directive also meant that taxpayers would have
access to information on ownerships of the companies winning the
contracts.
"The Executive Order is premised on
constitutional principles of Chapter 12 on public financial management,
and in particular Articles 201 and 227 that emphasise integrity, prudent
use of financial resources, and fair, equitable, competitive and cost
effective procurement … This will enhance the highest levels of public
scrutiny at all units of public administration," a statement from State
House had said on June 13.
But by close of business
yesterday, most of the agencies controlling multibillion shilling State
contracts were yet to publish details of such tenders.
It remains to be seen what action the President’s office will take on non-compliant agencies and departments.
Top among the cash-rich agencies that have yet to publish
details of their procurement contracts are the Central Bank of Kenya
(CBK), the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), Kenya Forest
Service (KFS), Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Kenya Revenue Authority
(KRA), and the Kenya Medical Training College.
Chief
of Staff and Head of Presidential Delivery Unit Nzioka Waita, however,
insisted that a lot of "progress" had been made since the directive was
issued.
"We are working closely with the Ministry of
ICT and the National Treasury to ensure that all procuring entities
within the National Government have the necessary technical and human
capacity to fully comply with the executive order. So far, we are happy
with the progress," Mr Waita said.
In mid-July, Head of
Public Service Joseph Kinyua said in a memo that accounting officers in
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were required to
consolidate and publish the required information, including new aspects
of ongoing contracts, on the 15th of every month.
Mr
Kinyua said information on the portal should include the basis of
awarding the tenders, parameters of assessment, names and details of the
tender committee members as well as the value of each contract.
Kenya
may be losing a third of its national budget — the equivalent of about
Sh666 billion — to theft and wastage every year, the head of the Ethics
and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) said in 2016.
Last
year, while campaigning for re-election, Mr Kenyatta promised to save
Sh1 trillion in five years through a reduction of wastage in public
service, and speedy resolution of corruption.
That
promise appeared to have entered the execution stage in the past two
months with renewed war on corruption that has seen dozens of senior
public officers and business people arrested and charged with theft of
billions of shillings.
More recently, rogue State
employees have been on the spot for manipulating the procurement law to
inflate tender prices and line their pockets with huge sums of money in
exchange for shady deals.
Documents relating to tender
disputes before the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board
(PPARB) have, for instance, shown that crooked government officials
collude with a cabal of tenderers to funnel lucrative government
contracts to a select group of connected individuals, leaving in their
wake protracted legal battles.
Corrupt tender
committees have been alleged to use restricted tendering, a procurement
method that limits the request for tenders to a select number of
suppliers, contractors or service providers, against the spirit of the
relevant law that specifies circumstances for restricted bidding.
There
is also mid-course cancellation of tenders to allow a fresh start in
which the terms of contracts are changed to lock out strong rivals in
favour preferred bidders.
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