By Judith Ugwumadu | 15 August 2014
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta called on all public servants to embrace transparency, accountability and prudent use of resources to ensure Kenyans received quality services.
He made the call as he announced that a new electronic procurement and payment system had been rolled out to eliminate the abuse of public funds.
Speaking in the country’s capital Nairobi on August 13, Kenyatta said e-procurement would ensure public finances were used prudently and for their intended purposes.
‘Over the years, we have heard complaints from Kenyans that the government is being overcharged for goods and services that it purchases,’ he said.
‘By introducing transparency and accountability through e-procurement, we expect to eliminate the abuse of our procurement system.’
E-procurement would save substantial money, he said, since the process of obtaining goods and services was about 50% of the government annual budget.
The new system would also strengthen the government-supplier relationship by providing easy access to information, documentation, simplifying the bidding process and ensure cost savings for the government and taxpayers.
Kenyatta went on: ‘Through the automation of public financial processes, the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems has provided an interlinked system of internal controls providing clear audits trails and identification of the originator of all transactions.’
During the launch, Kenyatta also welcomed the modernisation of the public financial management system by the National Treasury, citing the creation of a Treasury Single Account TSA, where all payments are expected to be processed in compliance with the PFM Act 2012 ‘as one of the key reforms in the financial sector’.
The new TSA would accelerate payments to suppliers since the National Treasury will have a better view of its overall cash position.
Kenyatta said: ‘Indeed, government-owned financial resources used to lie idle for extended periods in numerous bank accounts held by some spending units while the National Treasury continued to borrow – most likely the same money – to provide to the spending units ready to apply the resources.’
